THE  J  E113  HS 
K  PHTJUOT 


mnnasoN  cpeters 


LIBRARY 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
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THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 


By    MADISON  C.  PETERS 


Wit  and  Wisdom  of  the  Talmud 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION 
BY  H.  PERI  ERA  MENDES 


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The  Jew  as  a  Patriot 

WITH   AN    INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY 
BY   OSCAR  S.  STRAUS 

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THE  JEW 
AS  A  PATRIOT 

BY 

MADISON    C.    PETERS 

WITH  AN  INTROD  UCTOR  Y  ESS  A  Y 

BY 

OSCAR  S.  STRAUS 

NEW  YORK 
THE   BAKER   &    TAYLOR    CO. 

33-37  East  Seventeenth  Street 
1902 

«« 


Copyright,  1902, 

BV 

THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 


ROBERT   DRUMMOND   PRINTER,    NEW   YORK, 


TO 

Hatban  Straus 

WHOSE  VARIED  AND  MULTIPLIED  LABORS 

IN  THE  NOBLE  CAUSE  OF  HUMANITY 

HAVE  MADE  HIS  NAME  A  HOUSEHOLD  WORD 

AMONG  THE  POOR  OF   NEW  YORK 

THIS  BOOK  IS  DEDICATED 

ASA 

TOKEN  OF  ESTEEM  AND  FRIENDSHIP 

BY 

THE   AUTHOR 


14M 


"Coward?  not  he  who  faces  death, 
Who  singly  against  worlds  has  fought, 
For  what?    A  name  he  may  not  breathe, 
For  liberty  of  prayer  and  thought." 
vi 


FOREWORD 

Renan  said,  "A  Jew  will  never  be  a 
citizen;  he  will  simply  live  in  the  cities  of 
others."  This  implies  that  the  Jew  is  never 
a  patriot.  Such,  in  substance,  is  the  indict- 
ment brought  against  the  race  by  the  Anti- 
Semites  of  Europe  and  America.  Mark 
Twain  said,  in  a  magazine  article,  "  Concern- 
ing the  Jews  " :  "  By  his  make  and  his  ways  he 
is  substantially  a  foreigner  wherever  he  may 
be,  and  even  the  angels  dislike  a  foreigner." 
Then,  he  repeats  an  accusation  against  the 
Jew  often  heard:  "  The  Jew  is  charged  with  a 
patriotic  disinclination  to  stand  by  the  flag  as 
a  soldier — like  the  Christian  Quaker."  Sub- 
sequently, the  great  humorist  looked  up  some 
chapters  of  American-Jewish  history  and  dis- 
covered that  the  Jew  has  a  military  record; 


viii  FOREWORD 

therefore,  in  a  very  brief  postscript  added  to 
the  essay,  since  published  in  the  collection, 
entitled  "  The  Man  Who  Corrupted  Hadley- 
burg,"  he  makes  the  following  frank  confes- 
sion: "When  I  published  the  article  in 
Harper's  Magazine  I  was  ignorant,  like  the 
rest  of  the  Christian  world,  of  the  fact  that 
the  Jew  had  a  record  as  a  soldier.  I  have 
since  seen  the  official  statistics,  and  I  find  that 
he  furnished  soldiers  and  high  officers  in  the 
Revolution,  the  War  of  1812,  and  the  Mex- 
ican War."  After  reviewing  the  conspicuous 
services,  rendered  by  the  Jews  in  the  Civil 
War,  he  confesses  that  any  slur  upon  the 
Jew's  patriotism  is  a  slander, — a  slander  "that 
has  done  its  work,  done  it  long  and  faithfully 
and  with  high  approval.  It  ought  to  be  pen- 
sioned off  now,  and  retired  from  active  ser- 
vice." 

That  Christians  may  know  more  concern- 
ing the  Jews  as  fighters,  patriots,  and  citizens, 
and  that  Jews,  themselves,  may  become  more 
familiar  with  their  people's  records  are  the 


FOREWORD  ix 

purposes  of  the  author  in  the  publication  of 
the  following  chapters,  the  substance  of  sev- 
eral lectures,  given  before  many  universities, 
Chautauquas,  synods,  conferences,  minis- 
ters' meetings,  synagogues,  etc. 

Descent  from  Jewish  stock  determines, 
with  the  author,  who  is  to  be  regarded  as 
a  Jew.  The  almost  incredible,  narrow-minded 
illiberality  and  antagonism  to  Jewish  in- 
terests, of  which  the  modern  Anti-Semites  are 
still  giving  the  world  too  frequent  and  too 
infamous  exhibitions,  accounts,  for  instance, 
for  the  descendants  of  Moses  Mendelssohn, 
having  abandoned  Judaism  and  professed 
Christianity.  Such  eminent  men  as  Heine, 
Moscheles,  Joachim,  Rubinstein,  Disraeli, 
y^  i#,Her§ckeV  and  other  distinguished  German, 
English,  Polish,  Hungarian,  and  Russian- 
Jewish  musicians,  poets,  painters,  literati, 
scientists,  and  statesmen,  finding  that  faithful- 
ness to  their  ancient  creed  would  interfere 
with  the  free  exercise  of  their  professional 
career,  renounced  its  practice,  and  professed 


x  FOREWORD 

the  dominant  religion  of  their  native  country. 
This,  at  once,  removed  every  obstruction,  all 
restriction  and  the  religious  prejudice,  from 
which  they  would  otherwise  have  suffered. 

I  have  gathered  the  facts  for  these  chap- 
ters from  every  available  source;  and,  where 
I  fail  to  give  credit,  it  is  because  I  do  not 
know  where  to  bestow  it.  I  do  wish,  how- 
ever, to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to 
the  Jewish  Year  Book,  the  Jewish  Chronicle, 
but,  especially,  to  the  Hon.  Simon  Wolf's 
"  The  Jew  as  an  American  Citizen,  Soldier, 
and  Patriot."  In  this  volume,  Mr.  Wolf  gives 
nearly  eight  thousand  names  of  Jews,  who 
served  on  both  sides  during  the  Civil  War. 
What  I  have  written  in  these  pages  gives  only 
a  meagre,  but  general  idea  of  the  part  the 
Jews  have  taken  in  the  past  and  are,  at 
present,  taking  in  the  world  as  soldiers, 
patriots,  and  citizens. 

Instead  of  responding  to  many  urgent  re- 
quests for  a  new  and  revised  edition  of  "  Jus- 
tice to  the  Jew,"  the  author  has  incorporated 


FOREWORD  xi 

some  of  its  pages  into  this  book.  He  has  also 
made  use  of  some  of  the  facts  and  figures  in 
"  Justice  to  the  Jew,"  and  the  most  painstak- 
ing care  possible  has  been  exercised  to  verify 
every  statement  and  to  bring  all  the  facts  up 
to  date. 

M.  C.  P. 


SYNOPSIS   OF  CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY 

PAGB 

The  Hebrew  Commonwealth  the  Model  for  the  American 

Republic.     By  Oscar  S.  Straus xvii 

CHAPTER   I 

JEWS   IN  THE  DISCOVERY   OF  AMERICA 

Not  Isabella's  Jewels,  but  Jews,  the  Real  Financial  Basis 
of  the  First  Expedition  of  Columbus.  Dr.  Kayser- 
ling's  Investigations.  Emilio  Castelar  quoted.  With- 
out the  Scientific  Achievements  of  the  Jews,  Colum- 
bus' Wonderfully  Well-planned  Voyages  would  have 
been  Impossible.  The  First  White  Man  to  Set  Foot 
on  American  Soil  a  Jew 35 

CHAPTER  II 

JEWS   IN   THE   WARS    OF  THE   REPUBLIC 

New  York  the  First  State  Actually  Granting  Full  Relig- 
ious Liberty  to  the  Jews.  The  Part  the  Jews  took 
in  the  Colonial  Cause  prior  to  the  Revolution. 
Haym  Salomon  and  other  Jews  who  Sacrificed  their 
Fortunes  for  Independence.  Noted  Hebrews  who 
Served  with  Distinction  Throughout  the  Revolution- 
ary War.  Jewish  Patriotism  in  the  Mexican  War. 
Honorable  Record  in  the  Regular  Army  and  Navy. 
The  Conspicuous  Part  which  the  Jews  took  in  the 
Civil  War.  Jews  and  the  American  Antislavery 
Movement.  Jews  who  Served  in  the  American 
Armies  during  the  War  with  Spain 51 

CHAPTER   III 

JEWS   AS   SOLDIERS    IN   THE   ARMIES   OF   EUROPE 

The  Spiritual  Courage  it  Required  for  the  Race  to  Survive 
at  all.     The  Old  European  Ghettoes.     Jews  in  the 


xiv       SYNOPSIS   OF  CONTENTS 

PACK 

Spanish  Battles.  The  Brave  Defense  of  the  Polish 
Territory.  Jews  in  the  Austrian  Armies.  The 
Franco-Prussian  War.  Patriotism  of  the  Jews  of 
Germany.  Great  German  Soldiers  and  Distinguished 
Statesmen  who  by  Birth  and  Inherited  Genius  are 
Jews.  The  Hungarian  Revolution.  Jewish  Soldiers 
in  the  Grseco- Turkish  War.  Jews  in  the  Italian, 
Roumanian,  and  Russian  Armies.  The  Good  Beha- 
vior of  the  Jews  during  the  French  Revolution.  The 
Promptness  with  which  they  Rallied  under  the  Banner 
of  the  Empire  and  the  Republic  when  the  Safety  of 
their  Country  was  Imperiled.  The  Dreyfus  Affair. 
Blue-blooded  Jews  in  France.  Distinguished  Eng- 
lish Soldiers.  The  Contribution  of  Jews  to  the 
Fighting  Forces  in  the  British  War  with  the  Boers. 
The  Proportion  of  Jews  among  the  Soldiers  of  Europe 
Greater  than  that  of  any  other  Race 83 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE  JEW   IN   POLITICS    IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

The  High  Rank  which  the  Jews  take  even  in  Anti-Semitic 
Germany.  The  Rapid  Rise  of  the  Jews  in  Italian, 
French,  English,  and  American  Politics 133 

CHAPTER   V 

THE  NUMBER  OF  JEWS  THE  WORLD  OVER 

Jews  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  Total  Immigration  to 
the  United  States.  The  Distribution  of  our  Jewish 
Population 167 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE  WORLD'S   INDEBTEDNESS   TO  THE  JEW 

The  Need  of  Knowledge.  The  Genius  of  the  Jew.  The 
Jew  in  Finance  a  Creator  and  not  a  Puller-down. 
The  Longevity  of  the  Jews.  Their  Law-abiding 
Spirit  and  Activity  in  Charity.  Jewish  Wit  and 
Humor.  Anti-Semitism  in  America.  Why  the  Jew 
Wins.  The  Love  of  Money  the  Curse  of  Jew  and 
Gentile  alike.     Our  Debt  to  the  Jews  for  the  Bible. . .    179 


Introductory  Essay 

The    Hebrew   Commonwealth   the   Model 
for  the  American  Republic 

BY   OSCAR  S.    STRAUS 


The  whole  year  1789  contains  the  germ  of  Hebraism. 
The  idea  of  right  and  social  justice  is  an  Israelitish 
idea.  The  advent  of  justice  on  this  earth  has  been  the 
dream  of  our  people.  To  find  the  first  source  of  man's 
rights,  we  must  go  back  farther  than  the  Reform  or  the 
Renaissance,  farther  back  even  than  antiquity  or  the 
Gospel,  as  far  back  as  the  Bible,  the  Thora,  and  the 
prophets.  Our  rabbis,  the  Isaiahs  and  Jeremiahs, 
were  the  first  revolutionists.  .  .  .  From  our  Bible  came 
the  Reformation.  From  it  came  the  inspirations  of  the 
poor  wretches  of  the  Low  Countries.  Puritans  in  Eng- 
land and  America  appropriated  the  language  of  our 
judges  and  prophets.  To  the  Bible  belongs  the  suc- 
cess of  those  revolutions,  of  those  Anglo-Saxons  who 
boast  of  being  your  masters.  That  superiority  they 
owe  to  a  better  acquaintance  with  Israel.  The 
Huguenots  and  the  Bible  would  have  triumphed  in 
France  if  only  the  Revolution  had  burst  forth  a  century 
earlier,  and  in  that  event  it  would  have  had  a  different 
issue.  .  .  . 

In  teaching  that  all  men  descended  from  one  Adam 
and  one  Eve  the  Bible  proclaimed  that  all  were  free, 
equal,  and  brothers.  So  in  the  principles  of  the  Revo- 
lution our  hopes  are  the  same.  For  this  unity,  this 
fraternity,  our  prophets  show  us,  have  been  ours  in  the 
past,  as  they  must  be  in  the  future.  They  were 
Israel's  ideals.  The  Revolution  with  its  hopes  is  in  its 
issue  nothing  more  than  the  actual  testamentary  execu- 
tion of  the  will  of  Isaiah.  Social  renovation,  equality 
of  rights,  the  uplifting  of  the  lowly,  the  suppression  of 
privileges,  of  class  barriers,  the  brotherhood  of  races, 
everything  aimed  at  or  dreamed  of  by  the  Revolution, 
was  proclaimed  some  twenty-five  centuries  ago  by  our 
own  true  believers. 

Words  which  M.  Anatole  Leroy-Beaulieu,  the  emi- 
nent Frenchman,  puts  in  the  mouth  of  an  Israelite  who 
is  supposably  present  at  a  banquet  celebrating  the  cen- 
tenary of  1789. 

*vi 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY 

BY  OSCAR  S.   STRAUS 

It  is  remarkable  that,  of  the  many  histo- 
rians who  have  written  so  ably  and  minutely 
of  the  history  of  the  United  States,  none 
should  have  observed  in  his  writings  the  rela- 
tionship between  our  republic  and  the  com- 
monwealth of  the  Hebrews,  especially  in  the 
light  of  the  earliest  constitutions  of  several  of 
the  New  England  colonies  expressly  framed 
upon  the  model  of  the  Mosaic  code  as  a 
guide,  and  of  the  frequent  references  thereto 
made  by  the  ministers  in  their  political  ser- 
mons, who  constantly  drew  their  civil  creed 
from  the  history  of  those  times,  and  held  up 
this  ancient  form  of  government  as  a  model 

xvii 


xviii       INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY 

inspired   under   the   guidance   of   the   Most 
High. 

Samuel  Langdon,  D.D.,  the  President  of 
Harvard  College,  who,  through  the  influence 
of  John  Hancock,  was  installed  in  that  office 
as  the  successor  of  Samuel  Locke,  and  who 
afterwards,  in  1788,  was  a  member  of  the  New 
Hampshire  convention  when  the  constitution 
came  before  that  body  for  adoption,  in  his 
election  sermon  *  entitled  "  The  Republic  of 
the  Israelites  an  Example  to  the  American 
States,"  before  the  "  Honorable  Congress  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  "  on  the  31st  of  May,  1775 
— taking  as  his  text  the  passage  in  Isaiah  i. 
26:  "And  I  will  restore  thy  judge  as  at  the 

*  The  pulpit  in  Colonial  times  occupied  a  more  gen- 
eral sphere  and  exerted  more  general  influence  than 
to-day.  Ministers  preached  politics  as  well  as  religion. 
As  early  as  1633,  the  governor  and  assistants  in  the 
New  England  colonies  began  to  appoint  the  most 
eloquent  and  distinguished  ministers  to  preach  on  the 
day  of  the  general  election.  This  sermon  was  styled 
the  election  sermon.  The  sermon  was  printed  and  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  colonies,  and  these  sermons 
contributed  much  to  the  moral  force  that  brought  our 
independence. 


INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY         xix 

first,"  etc. — delivered  a  most  eloquent  dis- 
course, wherein  he  traces  the  history  of 
government  from  the  first  recorded  begin- 
ning, and  defines  its  functions  and  preroga- 
tives with  a  logic  that  proves  him  to  have 
been  well  versed  in  the  doctrines  of  civil 
liberty  as  handed  down  through  the  writings 
of  Sidney,  Milton,  Hoadley,  and  his  eminent 
predecessor,  Locke.  These  are  his  words: 
"  The  Jewish  government,  according  to  the 
original  constitution  which  was  divinely  es- 
tablished, if  considered  merely  in  a  civil  view, 
was  a  perfect  republic.  And  let  them  who  cry 
up  the  divine  right  of  kings  consider  that  the 
form  of  government  which  had  a  proper  claim 
to  a  divine  establishment  was  so  far  from  in- 
cluding the  idea  of  a  king  that  it  was  a  high 
crime  for  Israel  to  ask  to  be  in  this  respect 
like  other  nations,  and  when  they  were  thus 
gratified  it  was  rather  as  a  just  punishment 
for  their  folly.  Every  nation,  when  able  and 
agreed,  has  a  right  to  set  up  over  itself  any 
form  of  government  which  to  it  may  appear 


xx  INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY 

most  conducive  to  its  common  welfare.  The 
civil  polity  of  Israel  is  doubtless  an  excellent 
general  model,  allowing  for  some  peculiari- 
ties ;  at  least,  some  principal  laws  and  orders 
of  it  may  be  copied  in  more  modern  estab- 
lishments." 

By  a  special  vote  Dr.  Langdon's  sermon 
was  ordered  to  be  printed  and  sent  to  each 
minister  in  the  colony  and  to  each  member 
of  the  Congress.  What  effect  such  words  as 
these  had  upon  the  minds  of  the  people  in 
general  in  preparing  them  for  independence, 
as  well  as  upon  the  founders  of  our  republic, 
each  and  all  of  whom  doubtless  read  this  ser- 
mon, is  scarcely  a  matter  of  conjecture  when 
we  take  into  consideration  that  he  was  not 
only  a  ripe  scholar  occupying  the  most  impor- 
tant literary  position  in  America,  as  President 
of  Harvard  College,  but  one  of  the  foremost 
ministers  and  pulpit  orators,  as  well  as  an 
acknowledged  authority  in  the  science  of 
government.  The  eminent  divine  attached  a 
note  to  this  sermon,  saying  that  soon  after 


INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY        xxi 

its  delivery  the  convention  of  the  State  of 
New  Hampshire  met  (June  21st)  and  adopted 
the  United  States  Constitution,  thus  making 
the  requisite  two-thirds,  the  number  of  States 
necessary  for  its  adoption. 

On  the  17th  of  May,  1776,  which  was  kept 
as  a  national  fast,  George  Duffield,  the  minis- 
ter of  the  Third  Presbyterian  Church  in  Phil- 
adelphia, with  John  Adams  as  a  listener,  drew 
a  parallel  between  George  III.  and  Pharaoh, 
and  inferred  that  the  same  providence  of  God 
which  had  rescued  the  Israelites  from  Egyp- 
tian bondage  intended  to  free  the  colonies. 
The  election  sermon  of  the  following  year 
was  preached  on  the  29th  of  May,  1776,  some 
forty  days  before  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, before  "  the  Honorable  Council 
and  the  Honorable  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  by  the 
Rev.  Samuel  West.  He  was  not  behind  his 
professional  brethren  in  zeal  for  the  welfare 
and  liberty  of  his  country.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  convention  for  forming  the  constitu- 


xxii        INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY 

tion  of  Massachusetts,  and  of  that  of  1788, 
which  ratified  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  He  took  his  text  from  Isaiah  i.  26, 
the  same  as  was  taken  by  Dr.  Langdon  above 
quoted.  He  discusses  the  entire  political 
situation  of  the  times.  "  We  are  to  remem- 
ber that  all  men  being  by  nature  equal,  they 
have  a  right  to  make  such  regulation  as  they 
deem  necessary  for  the  good  of  all;  that 
magistrates  have  no  authority  but  what  they 
derive  from  the  people." 

The  election  sermon  in  1780  was  delivered 
before  the  same  body,  the  Council  and  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts, by  Rev.  Simeon  Howard,  who  suc- 
ceeded Dr.  Mayhew  as  pastor  of  the  West 
Church  of  Boston.  Among  his  hearers  were 
Robert  Treat  Paine  and  Samuel  Adams.  The 
latter  submitted  to  Rev.  Mr.  Howard  the 
resolution  of  both  Houses  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, containing  an  expression  of  thanks, 
and  requesting  a  copy  for  the  press.  Taking 
as  his  text  Exodus  xviii.  21 — "Thou  shalt 


INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY       xxiii 

provide  out  of  all  thy  people  able  men,  such 
as  fear  God,  men  of  truth,  hating  covetous- 
ness;  and  place  such  over  them  to  be  ruler" — 
he  divides  his  sermon  under  four  heads: 
1st.  Necessity  of  civil  government;  2d.  The 
right  of  the  people  to  choose  their  own 
rulers;  3d.  The  business  of  rulers;  and  4th. 
The  qualifications  as  pointed  out  in  the  text 
as  necessary  for  civil  rulers.  His  sermon  is 
almost  entirely  devoted  to  the  exposition  of 
the  Hebrew  Commonwealth  under  Moses; 
that  it  was  a  government  by  the  people  under 
the  guidance  of  God  Almighty ;  and  the  rulers 
were  not  appointed,  but  elected.  His  words 
are:  "This  is  asserted  by  Josephus  and 
plainly  intimated  by  Moses  in  his  recapitula- 
tory discourses,  and  indeed  the  Jews  always 
exercised  the  right  of  choosing  their  own 
rulers ;  even  Saul  and  David  and  all  their  suc- 
cessors on  the  throne  were  made  kings  by  the 
voice  of  the  people." 

On  May  8,  1783,  at  Hartford,  before  "  His 
Excellency     Governor    Trumbull    and    the 


xxiv       INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY 

Honorable  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of 
Connecticut,"  the  election  sermon  was 
preached  by  the  eminent  President  of  Yale 
College,  Rev.  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles,  who,  as  early 
as  1760,  predicted  that  "  the  imperial  domin- 
ion will  subvert  as  it  ought  in  election."  Dr. 
Stiles,  taking  for  his  text  Deut.  xxvi.  19 — 
"  And  to  make  thee  high  above  all  nations 
which  he  has  made,  in  praise,  and  in  name, 
and  in  honor,"  etc. — delivered  a  discourse 
entitled  "  The  United  States  Elevated  to 
Glory  and  Honor."  This  sermon  takes  up  one 
hundred  and  twenty  closely  printed  pages, 
and  assumes  the  proportions  of  a  treatise  on 
government  from  the  Hebrew  Theocracy 
down  to  the  then  present,  showing  by  illus- 
tration and  history  that  the  culmination  of 
popular  government  had  been  reached  in 
America,  transplanted  by  divine  hands  in  ful- 
fillment of  biblical  prophecy  from  the  days  of 
Moses  to  the  land  of  Washington;  and  dis- 
cussing from  an  historical  point  of  view  "  the 
reasons  rendering  it  probable  that  the  United 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY       xxv 

States  will,  by  the  ordering  of  Heaven,  event- 
ually become  this  people."  His  words  are: 
"  Here  (at  the  foot  of  Mount  Nebo)  the  man 
of  God,  Moses,  assembled  three  millions  of 
people — the  number  of  the  United  States, — 
recapitulated  and  gave  them  a  second  pub- 
lication of  the  sacred  Jural  Institute,  delivered 
thirty-eight  years  before  under  the  most 
awful  solemnity  at  Mt.  Sinai.  He  foresaw 
indeed  their  rejection  of  God,  whence  Moses 
and  the  prophets,  by  divine  direction,  inter- 
spersed their  writings  with  promises  that 
when  the  ends  of  God's  moral  government 
should  be  answered,  he  would  recover  and 
gather  them  [quoting  Deut.  xxx.  3 :  *  from 
all  the  nations  whither  God  had  scattered 
them  '].  Then  the  words  of  Moses,  hitherto 
accomplished  but  in  part,  will  be  literally  ful- 
filled. I  shall,"  he  continues,  ■'  enlarge  no 
further  upon  the  primary  sense  and  literal 
accomplishment  of  this  and  numerous  other 
prophecies  respecting  both  Jews  and  Gentiles 
in  the  latter-day  glory  of  the  church;  for  I 


xxvi       INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY 

have  assumed  the  text  only  as  introductory 
to  a  discourse  upon  the  political  welfare  of 
God's  American  Israel,  and  as  allusively 
prophetic  of  the  future  prosperity  and  splen- 
dor of  the  United  States."  Referring  to  the 
success  of  our  armies  under  Washington, 
whereby  the  independence  and  sovereignty 
of  the  United  States  was  established  and 
recognized  by  Great  Britain  herself  in  less 
than  eight  years,  he  says :  "  Whereupon 
Congress  put  at  the  head  of  the  spirited  army 
the  only  man  on  whom  the  eyes  of  all  Israel 
were  placed.  Posterity,  incredulous  as  they 
may  be,  will  yet  acknowledge  that  this  Amer- 
ican Joshua  was  raised  up  by  God  for  the 
great  work  of  leading  the  armies  of  this 
American  Joseph  (now  separated  from  his 
brethren),  and  conducting  these  people  to 
liberty  and  independence." 

Unfortunately,  we  have  in  most  instances 
only  skeleton  reports  of  proceedings  and  de- 
bates of  the  Federal  and  State  conventions 
on  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.    Doubt- 


INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY      xxvii 

less  the  model  of  the  ancient  commonwealth, 
its  history  and  lessons,  were  frequently  em- 
ployed by  the  distinguished  representatives; 
the  meagreness  of  the  records  leaves  this  to 
conjecture  only.  In  the  legislatures  of  the 
various  States  before  whom  the  Constitution 
came  for  adoption,  the  delegates  again  and 
again  referred  to  this  original  model  of  pop- 
ular government.  In  New  York,  for  instance, 
Robert  R.  Livingston,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
State,  refers  to  it ;  so  also  John  Lansing,  who, 
in  his  speech  urging  its  adoption,  says :  "  Sir, 
the  instances  from  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
Theocracy  evince  that  there  are  certain  situ- 
ations in  communities  which  will  unavoidably 
lead  to  results  similar  to  those  we  experience. 
The  Israelites  were  unsuccessful  in  war ;  they 
were  sometimes  defeated  by  their  enemies. 
Instead  of  reflecting  that  these  calamities 
were  occasioned  by  their  sins,  they  sought 
relief  in  the  appointment  of  a  king,  in  imita- 
tion of  their  neighbors.,,  So  also  the  Hon. 
Mr.  John  Smith,  who  quotes  in  full  the  ad- 


xxviii     INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY 

monition  of  Samuel  to  the  children  of  Israel, 
describing  the  manner  in  which  a  king  would 
rule  over  them.  In  short,  again  and  again,  in 
and  out  of  our  halls  of  legislation,  was  the 
history  of  the  Hebrew  Commonwealth  re- 
ferred to,  narrated,  rehearsed,  and  analogies 
drawn  therefrom  by  the  advocates  of  a  repub- 
lican form  of  government  in  answer  to  those 
who  favored  monarchy,  so  that  the  ad- 
monitions of  Samuel  were  as  familiar  to  the 
people  of  America  as  the  words  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer. 

In  the  light  of  these  facts  it  is  not  at  all  sur- 
prising that  the  committee  which  was  ap- 
pointed on  the  same  day  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  adopted,  consisting  of  Dr. 
Franklin,  Mr.  Adams,  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  to 
prepare  a  device  for  a  seal  for  the  United 
States,  should,  as  they  did,  have  proposed  as 
such  device  Pharaoh  sitting  in  an  open  char- 
iot, a  crown  on  his  head  and  a  sword  in  his 
hand,  passing  through  the  dividing  waters  of 
the  Red  Sea  in  pursuit  of  the  Israelites ;  with 


INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY       xxix 

rays  from  a  pillar  of  fire  beaming  on  Moses, 
who  is  represented  as  standing  on  the  shore 
extending  his  hand  over  the  sea,  causing  it  to 
overwhelm  Pharaoh;  and  underneath  the 
motto,  "  Rebellion  to  tyrants  is  obedience 
to  God." 

Through  more  than  a  century  and  a  half 
the  Puritan  ministers  never  tired  of  dwelling 
upon  the  trials,  sufferings,  and  fortitude  of 
the  children  of  Israel  during  their  long  and 
weary  wanderings  from  the  land  of  their  op- 
pressors until  the  organization  of  popular 
government  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan.  To 
what  extent  these  teachings  and  preach- 
ings served  as  an  inspiring  incentive  to  the 
American  people  in  their  heroic  struggle  for 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  to  what  degree 
the  oft-quoted  warnings  of  the  last  Judge  of 
Israel,  followed  by  the  corroborating  revela- 
tions of  scriptural  history,  supplied  the  argu- 
ment that  battered  down  the  enslaving  doc- 
trine of  the  "  Divine  Right  of  Kings  "  and  its 
corollaries,    "  Unlimited    Submission "    and 


xxx        INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY 

"  Non-Resistance,"  we  leave  for  the  reader 
to  draw  his  own  conclusion. 

We  neither  claim  nor  wish  to  be  under- 
stood as  inferring  that  the  structural  parts  of 
our  form  of  government  were  derived  from 
what  was  believed  to  be  the  components  of 
the  Hebrew  Commonwealth,  but  only  that 
this  scriptural  model  of  government,  which 
was  democratic,  as  distinguished  from  kingly 
rule,  had  a  deep  influence  upon  the  founders 
of  our  government  and  prepared  the  minds  of 
the  people,  especially  in  the  New  England 
colonies,  so  that  they  not  only  longed  for,  but 
would  not  content  themselves  with  any  other 
form  of  government  than  that  form  which  had 
the  divine  sanction,  the  government  of  the 
Hebrews  under  the  Judges. 

Looking  backward  over  a  period  of  nearly 
three  hundred  years  it  may  be  difficult  for  us 
in  this  age  to  understand  why  the  early  Puri- 
tans should  have  gone  back  nearly  three 
thousand  years  for  their  form  of  government, 
but  we  must  not  forget  the  intense  religious 


INTRODUCTORY   ESSAY       xxxi 

spirit  of  Puritanism,  which  was  a  Protestant 
renaissance  of  the  Old  Testament  and  a  rever- 
sion to  biblical  precedents  for  the  regulation 
of  the  minutest  details  of  daily  life.  They 
were  not  content  even  to  administer  justice 
by  the  civil  or  the  common  law,  but  regulated 
the  punishment  of  crimes  by  the  Pentateuch, 
and  in  framing  their  criminal  code  every  sec- 
tion cited  the  biblical  chapter  and  verse. 
Through  the  windows  of  the  Puritan 
churches  of  New  England  the  new  West 
looked  back  to  the  old  East. 


VI 


Jews  in  the  Discovery  of  America 


THE   JEW   AS   A   PATRIOT 


CHAPTER  I 
JEWS  IN  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA 

The  great  majority  of  Americans,  Jews  and 
non-Jews,  are  but  little  acquainted  with  the 
part  the  Jews  played  in  the  discovery  and 
early  settlement  of  the  United  States.  With 
the  same  hand  and  the  same  pen,  and  on  the 
same  day,  on  which  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
signed  that  infamous  edict,  which  drove 
more  than  two  hundred  thousand  Jews  from 
the  land  of  their  birth,  because  they  de- 
clined to  have  Christianity  forced  upon  them, 
they  also  signed  the  articles  of  agreement 
that  authorized  Cristobal  Colon,  as  the  Span- 

35 


36        THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

iards  called  Columbus,  to  go  forth  in  search 
of  another  world,  where,  in  the  words  of  Cas- 
telar,  the  distinguished  Spanish  publicist, 
"  Creation  should  be  new-born,  a  haven  be  af- 
forded to  the  quickening  principle  of  human 
liberty,  and  a  temple  be  reared  to  the  God  of 
enfranchised  and  redeemed  conscience." 

Dr.  Moses  Kayserling,  of  Buda-Pesth,  for 
years  the  acknowledged  master  of  Spanish- 
Jewish  history,  has  made  a  thorough  search 
of  the  Spanish  archives  and  records,  including 
those  of  the  Inquisition,  which  had  never  be- 
fore been  open  to  such  a  Jewish  investigator. 
The  result  is  his  valuable  work,  entitled 
"  Christopher  Columbus  and  the  Participa- 
tion of  the  Jews  in  the  Spanish  and  the  Por- 
tuguese Discoveries."  Although  an  English 
translation  has  been  published,  the  work  is  so 
heavy  and  so  specialized  that  very  few  people 
seem  to  have  read  the  book.  Since  that  time, 
Prof.  Herbert  B.  Adams,  in  one  of  the  valu- 
able series  of  historical  studies,  published  by 
the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  has  said,  "Not 


JEWS    IN   EARLY  AMERICA      37 

Jewels,  but  Jews,  were  the  real  financial  basis 
of  the  first  expedition  of  Columbus." 

Dr.  Kayserling  has,  beyond  a  doubt, 
pointed  out  that  two  Marranos,  or  secret 
Jews,  Luis  de  Santangel  and  Gabriel  Sanchez, 
— the  former  the  chancellor  of  the  royal 
household  and  comptroller-general  in  Arra- 
gon,  and  the  latter,  chief  treasurer  of  Arragon 
— enormously  rich  merchants,  who  enjoyed 
the  favor  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  supplied 
the  funds  needed  to  fit  out  Columbus'  caravels. 
Isabella  did  not  sell  her  valuable  jewels  to  fit 
out  Columbus  for  his  voyage.  It  is  generally 
supposed  that  she  had  already  pawned  or  sold 
them  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  wars  then 
devastating  her  country.  Dr.  Kayserling 
clearly  shows  that  the  jewel  story  is  false  and 
mythical, — a  fact  previously  proved  by  an- 
other Jew,  that  great  authority  on  Colum- 
bus, Henry  Harrisse.  Justin  Winsor,  in  his 
"  Christopher  Columbus,"  has  this  to  say  of 
the  jewel  story:  "  But  Harrisse  finds  no  war- 
rant for  it,  and  judges  the  advance  of  funds  to 


38        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

have  been  made  by  Santangel  from  his  pri- 
vate revenues  and  in  the  interests  of  Castile 
only.  And  this  seems  to  be  proved  by  the 
invariable  exclusion  of  Ferdinand's  subjects 
from  participating  in  the  advantages  of  trade 
in  the  new  lands,  unless  an  exception  was 
made  for  some  signal  service.  This  rule,  in- 
deed, prevailed  even  after  Ferdinand  began 
to  reign  alone."  Dr.  Kayserling  cites  high 
Spanish  authority  from  original  account- 
books  and  records,  and  narrates  Santangel's 
interview  with  the  Queen  as  follows :  u  Sant- 
angel, the  story  continues,  was  much  de- 
lighted at  the  Queen's  resolve,  and  declared 
that  it  was  not  necessary  for  her  to  pledge  her 
jewels;  he  would  be  pleased,  he  said,  to  ad- 
vance the  money  necessary  for  the  expedition, 
and  would  be  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  per- 
form so  small  a  service  for  her  and  for  his 
master  the  King."  Columbus'  son,  Fernando, 
and  Oviedo  give  similar  accounts  of  the  in- 
terview. Dr.  Kayserling  continues :  "  At 
that  time  neither  Arragon  nor  Castile,  neither 


JEWS  Itt   EARLY  AMERICA      & 

Ferdinand  nor  Isabella,  had  at  their  disposal 
enough  money  to  equip  a  fleet.  Santangel, 
who  was  always  ready  to  oblige  the  Crown, 
advanced  17,000  florins— nearly  5,000,000 
maravedis.  The  Queen's  jewels  were  not 
demanded  as  security;  all  of  them  were  not, 
in  fact,  in  her  possession  at  that  time,  for 
she  had  pledged  her  necklace  during  the  late 
war.  Santangel's  extraordinary  services  in 
this  matter  are  clearly  demonstrated  by  the 
excessive  praise  which  Ferdinand  accorded 
his  '  well-beloved  '  Luis  de  Santangel,  and  by 
the  many  proofs  of  gratitude  which  the  King 
gave  him.  That  he  advanced  this  money  out 
of  his  own  pocket  is  proved  beyond  question 
by  the  original  account-books  which  were 
formerly  in  the  archives  of  Simancas,  and 
which  are  still  preserved  in  the  Archivo  de 
Indias  in  Seville.  In  the  account-book  of 
Luis  de  Santangel  and  the  treasurer,  Fran- 
cisco Pinelo,  extending  from  1491  to  1493, 
Santangel  is  credited  with  an  item  of  1,400,- 
000  maravedis  which  he  gave  to  the  Bishop 


40        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

of  Avila  for  Columbus'  expedition.  In  an- 
other account-book,  that  of  Garcia  Martinez 
and  Pedro  de  Montemayor,  there  is  the  fol- 
lowing item :  *  Alonso  de  las  Calezas,  treas- 
urer of  war  in  the  bishopric  of  Badajoz,  by  or- 
der of  the  Archbishop  of  Granada,  dated  May 
5,  1492,  paid  to  Alonso  de  Angelo  for  Luis  ae 
Santangel,  the  King's  escribano  de  racion, 
whose  authorization  was  presented  with  the 
aforesaid  order,  2,640,000  maravedis,  to  wit, 
1,500,000  in  payment  to  Isaac  Abravanel  for 
money  which  he  had  lent  their  Majesties  in 
the  Moorish  war,  and  the  remaining  1,140,- 
000  maravedis  in  payment  to  the  aforesaid 
escribano  de  racion  of  money  which  he  ad- 
vanced to  equip  the  caravels  ordered  by  their 
Majesties  for  the  expedition  to  the  Indies, 
and  to  pay  Christopher  Columbus,  the  ad- 
miral of  that  fleet.'  On  May  20,  1493,  on 
which  day  Ferdinand  was  particularly  occu- 
pied with  Columbus  and  his  expedition,  the 
King  ordered  his  treasurer-general,  Gabriel 
Sanchez,  to  pay  30,000  florins  in  gold  to  i  his 


JEWS  IN   EARLY  AMERICA      41 

beloved  councillor  and  escribano  de  racion, 
Luis  de  Santangel.'  This  sum  certainly  in- 
cluded the  remainder  of  the  loan." 

Emilio  Castelar,  the  Spanish  statesman 
and  orator,  already  quoted,  has  given  us  the 
facts,  as  to  Columbus'  long  and  futile 
efforts  to  interest  the  Spanish  sovereigns 
in  his  project,  as  well  as  to  Columbus' 
actual  departure  from  the  Spanish  Court, 
discouraged  and  turning  to  France :  "  Quin- 
tanilla  had  opened  to  Columbus  the  path- 
way to  the  court,  Santangelo  [as  Cas- 
telar names  Luis  de  Santangel]  opened 
the  road  to  Palos.  Of  a  family  of  converts, 
himself  but  recently  a  Christian,  one  of  those 
antique  Jews  who  have  so  greatly  helped  to 
enlighten  the  Christian  world,  like  the  Cara- 
genas  of  Burgos,  for  instance,  he  joined,  as  is 
the  nature  and  tendency  of  his  race,  the  love 
of  the  ideal,  appropriate  to  the  prophets 
divinely  inspired  of  the  Lord,  to  the  reflective 
calculations  of  the  schemer  and  the  mathema- 
tician.   It  is  a  historical  fact  that  one  day  Fer- 


4'2        iTH E  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOf 

dinand  V.,  on  his  way  from  Arragon  to  Cas- 
tile, and  needing  some  ready  cash,  as  often 
happened,  owing  to  the  impoverishment  of 
those  kingdoms,  halted  his  horse  at  the  door 
of  Santangel's  house  in  Calatayud,  and,  dis- 
mounting, entered  and  obtained  a  consider- 
able sum  from  the  latter's  inexhaustible  pri- 
vate coffers.  He  must  have  enjoyed  great 
power,  for  although  some  of  his  near  kinsfolk 
took  part  in  the  immolation  of  Pedro  Arbues, 
the  first  inquisitor,  who  was  slain  in  the 
cathedral  of  Saragossa  in  the  frenzy  of  a  pop- 
ular uprising,  no  harm  came  to  Ferdinand's 
treasurer,  neither  did  he  fall  from  royal  favor 
nor  incur  the  usual  penalty  of  infamy.  As 
soon  as  Santangelo  heard  of  the  flight  of 
Columbus  he  went  to  the  Queen's  cham- 
ber and  implored  her  to  order  him  to  re- 
turn, being  supported  in  this  by  the 
Marchioness  of  Maya.  And  when  the  Queen 
complained  of  the  exorbitant  demands  of  the 
discoverer,  he  reminded  her  that  the  cost 
would  be  but  a  trifling  consideration  if  the 


JEWS  IN   £ARLY  AMERICA      43 

attempt  succeeded,  and  if  it  failed  could  be 
reduced  to  next  to  nothing.  When  to  this 
cogent  reasoning  the  Queen  objected  the 
emptiness  of  the  Castilian  treasury  and  the 
need  of  again  pawning  her  jewels  to  raise  the 
means,  Santangelo  unhesitatingly  assured  her 
of  the  flourishing  state  of  the  Arragonese 
finances,  doubtless  because  of  the  revenues 
yielded  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews,  and  of 
the  resources  there  available,  promising  at 
the  same  time  to  win  over  the  perplexed  and 
inert  mind  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic.  There- 
upon messengers  were  sent  post-haste  who 
stopped  Columbus  at  a  neighboring  bridge 
some  two  leagues  away,  and  made  him  turn 
back  to  Granada,  where,  in  April,  1492,  the 
articles  of  agreement  known  as  the  capitula- 
tions of  Santa  Fe  were  signed,  granting 
Columbus  all  he  asked." 

The  maps,  which  Columbus  used,  were 
drawn  up  by  Jafuda  or  Jehuda  Cresques, 
known  also  as  Mestre  Jaime  Ribes,  the 
"  Map-Jew,"  or  "  Compass-Jew,"   who  was 


44        THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

director  of  the  Portuguese  Academy  at 
Sayres  and  instructor  in  the  art  of  navigation 
and  the  manufacturer  of  nautical  instruments 
and  maps,  while  he  made  many  improvements 
in  the  compass  and  in  the  application  of 
astronomy  to  navigation,  which  alone  made 
possible  Columbus'  wonderfully  well-planned 
voyages.  Columbus  derived  much  value  from 
the  astronomical  tables  of  Abraham  Zacuto. 
These  tables  were  translated  from  the 
Hebrew  into  Latin  and  Spanish  by  Joseph 
Vecincho,  Zacuto's  pupil,  another  Jew,  dis- 
tinguished as  a  physician,  cosmographer,  and 
mathematician ;  and  it  was  he  who  presented 
a  copy  to  the  Genoese  navigator,  which 
Columbus  found  of  great  service  on  his  voy- 
ages. This  copy,  with  notes  and  glosses  in 
Columbus'  handwriting,  still  exists  in  Spain. 
Without  these  Jewish  inventions,  the  dis- 
coveries of  Columbus  would  have  been  im- 
possible. 

Columbus  wrote :     "  I  have  had  constant 
relations  with  many  learned  men,  clergy  and 


JEWS  IN   EARLY  AMERICA      45 

laymen,  Jews  and  Moors  and  many  others." 
In  his  will,  Columbus  refers  to  one  of  these 
Jews,  whose  identity  is  unknown.  Washing- 
ton Irving  says  that  this  legacy  of  a  half-mark 
of  silver  to  a  poor  Jew  who  lived  in  Lisbon 
was  probably  a  trivial  debt  of  conscience  or 
reward  for  some  service  received. 

Rodrigo  Sanchez,  a  cousin  of  Gabriel  San- 
chez, was  designated  to  accompany  the  ex- 
pedition as  veedor,  or  superintendent,  at  the 
special  request  of  Queen  Isabella.  The  ship- 
physician,  Maestre  Bernal,  the  surgeon, 
Marco,  and  a  sailor,  Alonso  de  la  Calle,  were 
Jews.  It  was  a  Jew,  Rodrigo  de  Triana,  who 
first  saw  the  land,  and  another  Jew,  Luis  de 
Torres,  taken  along  because  he  understood 
Hebrew,  Chaldee,  and  some  Arabic,  as  inter- 
preter in  the  Oriental  lands  which  Columbus 
expected  to  reach,  who  was  the  first  white 
man  to  set  foot  on  American  soil,  having 
been  sent  ashore  to  greet  the  Grand  Khan  of 
India,  whose  country  Columbus  believed  he 
had  reached  by  a  new  route.     Torres  was 


46        THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

also  the  first  European  to  discover  the  use  of 
tobacco.     Columbus  in  his  Journal,  writing 
of  his  first  voyage  of  discovery  as  coincident 
with  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Spain,  has 
the    following    suggestive    sentence :    "  So, 
after  having  expelled  the  Jews  from  your 
dominions,   your   Highnesses,   in   the   same 
month  of  January,  ordered  me  to  proceed 
with    a    sufficient    armament    to    the    said 
regions  of  India."     Castelar,  commenting  on 
this  point,  writes :    "  It  chanced  that  one  of 
the  last  vessels  transporting  into  exile  the 
Jews  expelled  from  Spain  by  the  religious  in- 
tolerance of  which  the  recently  created  and 
odious  Tribunal  of  the  Faith  was  the  embodi- 
ment,  passed   by   the   little   fleet   bound   in 
Search  of  another  world.     As  though  the  sun 
were  not  to  shine  for  all,  as  though  the  will 
of  Heaven  had  not  made  us  equal,  the  assured 
spirit  of  reaction  was  wreaking  one  of  its 
stupendous  and  futile  crimes  in  that  very 
hour  when  the  genius  of  liberty  was  search- 
ing the  waves  for  the  land  that  must  needs 


JEWS   IN   EARLY  AMERICA      47 

arise  to  offer  an  unstained  abode  for  the  ideals 
of  progress.  Following  their  narrow  views, 
the  powers  of  the  Middle  Ages  denied  even 
light  and  warmth  to  the  Jews  at  the  same 
time  that  they  revealed  a  new  creation  for  a 
new  order  of  society,  that  was  predestined  by 
Providence  to  put  an  end  to  all  intolerance, 
and  to  dedicate  an  infinite  continent  to 
modern  democracy." 


Jews  in  the  Wars  of  the  Republic 


The  patriotism  of  the  Jew  is  to  me  his  greatest  virtue. 
In  this  he  stands  peerless  in  the  mighty  tomes  of  his- 
tory. To  be  a  patriot  to  a  country  that  degrades,  to 
love  a  people  that  despises,  is  divine.  Of  such  a  divine 
nature  was,  and  still  is,  the  patriotism  of  the  Jews.  He 
loves  the  country  in  which  are  clustered  the  proudest 
reminiscences  of  the  history  of  his  race,  but  more, 
much  more,  the  country  where  his  home  is,  where  his 
dear  ones  live  or  lie  buried.  Where  his  home  is,  there 
his  heart  is,  and  where  his  heart  is,  there  his  love  is, 
and  where  his  heart  and  home  and  love  are,  there  is  his 
patriotism, — and  let  the  treatment  accorded  him  by  his 
country  be  ever  so  cruel,  and  the  ignominies  heaped 
upon  him  by  his  fellow  men  be  ever  so  degrading.  No 
matter  what  the  treatment,  he  still  obeys  the  words  of 
Jeremiah  addressed  to  the  Jewish  captives  at  Babylon: 
"  Build  ye  houses  and  dwell  in  them,  and  plant  gardens 
and  eat  fruit  of  them.  Seek  the  peace  of  every  city 
whither  you  are  carried  as  captives,  and  pray  unto  the 
Lord  for  it,  for  in  the  peace  thereof  shall  ye  have 
peace."  No  matter  what  the  law,  he  still  obeys  the 
lesson  taught  by  the  great  teacher  Mar  Samuel,  "to 
hold  the  law  of  the  country  in  which  he  lives  as  the 
highest  law."  No  matter  how  cruel  the  government, 
he  prays  for  its  welfare  week  after  week.  No  matter  how 
ill  his  patriotism  is  repaid,  the  duties  of  patriotism  are 
impressed  upon  his  children,  in  their  religious  school, 
year  after  year. — Joseph  Krauskopf. 
50 


CHAPTER  II 

JEWS  IN  THE  WARS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 

The  Jews  in  New  York  were  not  on 
a  footing  of  political  equality  with  Chris- 
tians until  the  adoption  of  the  first  constitu- 
tion of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  1777,  New 
York  having  been  the  first  state  actually 
granting  full  religious  liberty  to  the  Jews. 
Even  in  Maryland,  to  which  Bancroft  has  re- 
ferred as  among  the  first  colonies,  which 
"  adopted  religious  freedom  as  the  basis  of  the 
State,"  religious  freedom  was  limited  to  those 
who  believed  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  accom- 
panied by  a  proviso,  which  declared  that  any 
person  who  denied  the  Trinity  should  be 
punished  with  death.     Even  after  the  Revo- 


52        THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

lution,  though  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  a  Jew  was  eligible  to  any 
office,  no  one  could  hold  any  office  under  the 
government  of  Maryland  without  signing  a 
declaration  that  he  believed  in  the  Christian 
religion. 

These  intolerant  provisions  were  not  re- 
pealed in  Maryland  until  February  26,  1825. 
Though  subjected  to  civil  disabilities  and  un- 
reasonable demands  in  most  of  the  States, 
where  they  had  settled  prior  to  the  Revolu- 
ton,  yet  the  Colonial  cause  found  among  the 
Jews  its  stanchest  friends.  Freely,  they  gave 
their  lives  for  independence  and  aided,  with 
their  money,  to  equip  and  maintain  the 
armies  of  the  Revolution. 

The  Non-Importation  Resolution  in  1765, 
the  first  organized  movement  in  the  agitation 
for  separation  from  the  mother  country, — a 
document  still  preserved  in  Carpenter's  Hall, 
Philadelphia, — contains  the  following  Jewish 
names:  Benjamin  Levy,  Samson  Levy, 
Joseph    Jacobs,    Hyman    Levy,    Jr.,    David 


JEWS   IN  AMERICAN  WARS      53 

Franks,  Mathias  Bush,  Michael  Gratz,  Bar- 
nard Gratz,  and  Moses  Mordecai. 

In  1769,  a  corps  of  volunteer  infantry  com- 
posed chiefly  of  Hebrews  under  command  of 
Captain  Lushington,  was  raised  in  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina.  These  soldiers  after- 
ward fought  with  great  bravery  under  Gen- 
eral Moultrie  at  Beaufort. 

The  decision,  reached  in  New  York,  in 
1770,  to  make  more  stringent  the  Non-Im- 
portation Agreement  which  the  colonists  had 
adopted  to  bring  England  to  terms  on  the 
taxation  question,  had  among  its  signers 
Samuel  Judah,  Hayman  Levy,  Jacob  Moses, 
Jacob  Meyers,  Jonas  Phillips,  and  Isaac 
Seixas. 

At  a  time,  when  the  sinews  of  war  were  es- 
sential to  success,  Haym  Salomon,  of  Phil- 
adelphia, the  countryman  and  intimate  asso- 
ciate of  Pulaski  and  Kosciusko,  responded  to 
Robert  Morris'  appeal  with  $300,000;  and  it 
is  variously  estimated  that  he  gave,  all  told, 
$600,000,  not  a  penny  of  which  has  ever  been 


54        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

repaid  to  the  heirs  of  the  philanthropist  and 
patriot. 

The  late  Judge  Charles  P.  Daly  ("  History 
of  Jews  in  North  America,"  page  58)  sum- 
marizes the  character  of  Haym  Salomon 
thus :  "  He  was  a  man  of  large  private  for- 
tune, engaged  in  commercial  pursuits,  of 
great  financial  resources  and  ability,  and  of 
the  highest  personal  integrity.  He  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  Colonies  with  great  ardor, 
and  supplied  the  government  from  his  own 
means  with  a  large  amount  of  money  at  the 
most  critical  periods  of  the  struggle.  As  ap- 
peared from  documentary  evidence  afterward 
submitted  to  Congress,  he  advanced  to  the 
government  altogether  $658,007.13,  an  enor- 
mous sum  at  that  period  for  a  private  individ- 
ual, when  all  commerce  and  business  were 
prostrated. 

"  But  in  addition  to  this  he  supported  dele- 
gates to  Congress  and  officers  of  the  army 
and  of  the  government  with  the  means  of 
defraying  their   ordinary   expenses,   among 


JEWS  IN  AMERICAN  WARS      55 

whom  were  Jefferson,  Madison,  Lee,  Steuben, 
Mifflin,  St.  Clair,  Wilson,  Monroe,  and  Mer- 
cer. 

After  reciting  Salomon's  unselfish  patriot- 
ism in  refusing  all  interest  or  recompense,  of 
his  capture  by  the  British,  and  of  his  long  im- 
prisonment in  New  York  in  a  jail  called  the 
Prevot,  Judge  Daly  says :  "  He  died  before 
he  had  taken  any  steps  to  secure  a  reimburse- 
ment by  the  government  of  the  large  amount 
he  had  loaned  it,  and  left  a  wife  and  four  small 
children,  to  use  the  language  of  the  Congres- 
sional report :  '  to  hazard  and  neglect/  Ap- 
plications have  been  made  to  Congress  by  his 
heirs  for  the  repayment  of  the  amount  loaned, 
or  at  least  for  some  part  of  it.  These  applica- 
tions led  to  the  most  thorough  searches  in 
the  archives  of  the  government  and  among 
the  papers  of  Robert  Morris,  but  nothing 
was  found  showing  that  any  portion  of  the 
amount  had  ever  been  repaid.  Madison  in 
1827  urged  that  the  memorialists  might  be 
indemnified,  and  reports  in  their  favor  have 


56        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

frequently  been  made  by  Congressional  com- 
mittees, but  down  to  1864  not  a  dollar  had 
been  repaid  to  them — a  fact,  I  regret 
to  say,  which  affords  support  to  the 
oft-repeated  observation  of  the  ingrati- 
tude of  republic." 

Jared  Sparks  wrote  many  years  ago  that 
Salomon's  associations  with  Robert  Morris 
11  were  very  close  and  intimate,  and  that  a 
great  part  of  the  success  that  Mr.  Morris  at- 
tained in  his  financial  schemes  was  due  to  the 
skill  and  ability  of  Haym  Salomon.*' 

Prof.  Herbert  B.  Adams  and  Dr.  Hollan- 
der, both  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  have 
shown  that  Salomon  was  the  negotiator  of 
the  war  subsidies  obtained  from  France  and 
Holland,  which  he  endorsed  and  sold  in  bills 
to  the  merchants  in  America  at  a  credit  of 
two  or  three  months  "  on  his  own  personal 
security,"  without  the  loss  of  a  cent  to  the 
country  and  receiving  only  one  quarter  of  one 
per  cent.,  and  that  he  was  appointed  by  the 
French  government  paymaster-general  of  the 


JEWS   IN  AMERICAN  WARS      $7 

troops  in  America,  which  trust  he  executed 
free  of  charge. 

The  secret  support  of  Charles  III.  of  Spain 
is  alleged  to  have  been  due  partly  to  his  ef- 
forts. He  maintained  from  his  own  private 
purse  Don  Francisco  Rendon,  the  secret  am- 
bassador of  that  monarch,  for  nearly  two 
years,  or  up  to  the  time  of  Mr.  Salomon's 
death. 

On  the  accession  of  the  Count  de  la 
Luzerne  to  the  embassy  from  France,  Mr. 
Salomon  was  made  the  banker  of  that  govern- 
ment. A  letter  from  Count  Vergennes, 
minister  of  Spain,  to  De  la  Luzerne,  ambas- 
sador to  this  country,  states  that  in  two  years 
150,000,000  livres  were  disbursed  in  this 
country  through  Mr.  Salomon. 

But  Haym  Salomon  was  not  the  only  Jew, 
who  sacrificed  his  fortune  for  independence, 
for  we  find  that  among  the  signers  of  the  bills 
of  credit  for  the  Continental  Congress,  in 
1776,  were  Benjamin  Levy  of  Philadelphia 
and  Benjamin  Jacobs  of  New  York.    Samuel 


58        THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

Lyon  of  New  York  was  among  the  signers 
of  similar  bills  in  1779.  Isaac  Moses,  of  Phil- 
adelphia, contributed  $15,000  to  the  Colonial 
Treasury,  and  Herman  Levy,  another  Phil- 
adelphian,  repeatedly  advanced  considerable 
sums  for  the  support  of  the  army  in  the  field. 
Manuel  Mordecai  Noah  of  South  Carolina 
not  only  served  in  the  army  as  an  officer  on 
Washington's  staff,  and  likewise  with  General 
Marion,  but  gave  $100,000  to  further  the 
cause  in  which  he  was  enlisted. 

Cyrus  Adler  recently  called  attention  to 
the  following  incident.  His  information  was 
based  on  an  unpublished  letter  of  Jared 
Sparks :  "  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  a  Mr.  Gomez,  of  New  York, 
proposed  to  a  member  of  the  Continental 
Congress  that  he  form  a  company  of  soldiers 
for  service.  The  member  of  Congress  remon- 
strated with  Mr.  Gomez  on  the  score  of  age, 
he  then  being  sixty-eight,  to  which  Mr. 
Gomez  replied  that  he  'could  stop  a  bullet  as 
well  as  a  younger  man.'  " 


JEWS  IN  AMERICAN  WARS      59 

Among  the  patriots  of  the  South  none 
worked  more  unselfishly  than  Mordecai  Shef- 
tall,  "  Chairman  of  the  Rebel  Parochial  Com- 
mittee," organized  to  regulate  the  internal 
affairs  of  Savannah  and  composed  of  patriots, 
opposed  to  the  royal  government,  and  who, 
after  active  hostilities  were  begun  in  the 
South,  was  appointed  Commissary-General 
to  the  troops  of  Georgia  in  July,  1777,  and 
soon  thereafter  was  also  appointed  commis- 
sary to  the  Continental  troops ;  and  when  the 
British  attacked  Savannah  in  December, 
1778,  Shef tail's  name  appears  not  only  fore- 
most among  the  patriot  defenders  of  that  city 
and  as  one  who  advanced  considerable  money 
to  the  cause,  but  as  one  who  was  placed  on 
board  the  prison  ships  because  of  his  refusal 
to  flock  to  the  royal  standard.  In  1780,  when 
the  British  authorities  passed  the  disqualify- 
ing act,  we  find  the  name  of  Mordecai  Shef- 
tall  near  the  head  of  the  list  with  the  most 
prominent  patriot  names  of  Georgia. 

Colonel  Isaac  Franks  became  aide-de-camp 


rl 


■ .,. 


60        THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

to  Washington,  holding  the  rank  of  colonel 
on  his  staff;  and  this  noted  Hebrew  served 
with  distinction  throughout  the  war. 

Major  Benjamin  Nones,  a  native  of  Bor- 
deaux, France,  who  came  to  America  in  1777, 
served  on  the  staffs  of  both  Lafayette  and 
Washington.  He  entered  service  under  Pu- 
laski, as  a  private ;  and,  as  he  writes,  "  Fought 
in  almost  every  action  which  took  place  in 
Carolina,  and  in  the  disastrous  affair  of 
Savannah  shared  the  hardships  of  that  san- 
guinary day."  He  became  major  of  a  legion 
of  four  hundred  men,  attached  to  Baron  de 
Kalb's  command  and  composed  in  part  of 
Hebrews.  And  when  the  brave  De  Kalb  fell 
mortally  wounded,  Major  Nones,  Captain 
Jacob  de  la  Motta,  and  Captain  Jacob  de 
Leon  carried  their  chief  from  the  field. 

Colonel  David  S.  Franks  of  Montreal 
openly  sympathized  with  and  aided  the  Amer- 
icans under  Generals  Montgomery  and  Ar- 
nold during  their  invasion  of  Canada,  and  was 
forced  to  flee  from  Canada  in  1776,  when  the 


JEWS   IN  AMERICAN   WARS      61 

Amercan  forces  abandoned  the  country.  The 
name  of  David  S.  Franks  appeared  on  Gov- 
ernor Carleton's  list  of  twenty-nine  persons, 
sent  to  the  British  Ministry  early  in  1777, 
"  being  the  principal  persons  settled  in  the 
province  who  very  zealously  served  the  rebels 
in  the  winter  of  1 775-1 776,  and  fled  upon 
their  leaving  it."  Franks,  who  left  Canada 
with  the  intention  of  joining  the  American 
army,  although  his  course  in  this  matter  re- 
sulted in  heavy  pecuniary  losses  in  his  busi- 
ness affairs  and  also  alienated  him  from  his 
father,  became  aide-de-camp  to  Arnold, 
the  intrepid,  zealous,  and  able  soldier  that 
he  was,  until  jealousy,  extravagance,  and 
spite  led  him  to  take  up  the  traitor's  role. 
Franks  gave  testimony  to  Mrs.  Arnold's  in- 
nocence of  all  complicity  in  her  husband's 
treason.  Suspicions  were  aroused  against 
Franks  on  account  of  Arnold's  treason; 
nevertheless,  after  a  searching  inquiry  into 
his  conduct,  he  was  not  only  acquitted, 
but   he   was   sent   to   Europe   with   impor- 


62        THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

tant  dispatches  to  Jay  and  Franklin,  with  in- 
structions to  await  their  orders.  In  a  letter 
from  Robert  Morris  to  Franklin,  dated  Phil- 
adelphia, July  13,  1 78 1,  we  read :  "  The  bearer 
of  the  letter,  Major  Franks,  formerly  an  aide- 
de-camp  to  General  Arnold,  and  honorably 
acquitted  of  all  connection  with  him  after  a 
full  and  impartial  inquiry,  will  be  able  to  give 
you  our  public  news  more  particularly  than 
I  could  relate  them." 

Philip  Moses  Russell,  in  the  spring  of  1775, 
enlisted  as  a  surgeon's  mate  under  command 
of  General  Lee.  After  the  British  occupation 
of  Philadelphia  in  September,  1777,  he  be- 
came surgeon's  mate  to  Surgeon  Norman  of 
the  Second  Virginia  Regiment.  Russell  went 
into  winter  quarters  with  the  army  at  Valley 
Forge,  1 777-1 778.  Sickness  forced  him  to 
resign  in  August,  1780.  He  received  a  letter 
of  commendation  from  General  Washington 
"  for  his  assiduous  and  faithful  attentions  to 
the  sick  and  wounded." 

Solomon  Bush,  Emanuel  de  la  Motta,  Ben- 


JEWS   IN   AMERICAN   WARS      63 

jamin  Ezekiel,  Jason  Sampson,  Solonel  Jacob 
de  la  Motta,  Ascher  Levy,  Nathaniel  Levy, 
David  Hays  and  his  son,  Jacob,  Reuben  Et- 
ting,  Jacob  I.  Cohen,  Major  Lewis  Bush, 
Aaron  Benjamin,  Joseph  Bloomfield,  Moses 
Bloomfield,  Isaac  Israel,  and  Benjamin 
Moses  are  the  names  of  a  few  of  the  other 
Jews  who  distinguished  themselves  upon  the 
battle-fields  of  the  Revolution. 

The  commemoration  of  the  first  battle-field 
of  the  Revolutionary  War  was  made  possible 
through  a  Jew.  Upon  learning  that  Amos 
Lawrence  of  Boston  had  pledged  himself  to 
give  $10,000  to  complete  the  Bunker  Hill 
monument,  if  any  other  person  could  be  found 
to  give. a  like  amount,  Judah  Touro,  of  New 
Orleans,  who  came  to  the  aid  of  Andrew 
Jackson  during  the  memorable  defense  of 
that  city,  immediately  sent  a  check  for  the 
amount.  In  the  History  of  the  Bunker  Hill 
Monument,  which  was  published  by  George 
Washington  Warren,  appears  the  following 
tribute  to  Judah  Touro :     "  He  was  one  of 


64        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

that  smallest  of  all  classes  into  which  man- 
kind can  be  divided — of  men  who  accumulate 
wealth  without  ever  doing  a  wrong,  taking  an 
advantage,  or  making  an  enemy;  who  be- 
come rich  without  being  avaricious ;  who  deny 
themselves  the  comforts  of  life  that  they  may 
acquire  the  means  of  promoting  the  comfort 
and  elevating  the  condition  of  their  fellow 
men."  At  a  dinner  given  at  Faneuil  Hall  on 
June  17,  1843,  to  celebrate  the  completion  of 
the  monument,  the  two  great  benefactors  of 
the  association  were  remembered  by  the  fol- 
lowing toasts: 

"  Amos  and  Judah,  venerated  names, 
Patriarch  and  Prophet  press  their  equal  claims; 
Like  generous  coursers  running  '  neck  and  neck,' 
Each  aids  the  work  by  giving  it  a  check. 
Christian  and  Jew,  they  carry  out  one  plan, 
For  though  of  different  faiths,  each  is  in  heart  a 

MAN." 

THE   MEXICAN   WAR 

At  the  time  of  the  Mexican  War,  in  1846, 
the  Jewish  population  was  perhaps  15,000. 
General   David   de   Leon  twice  took  the 


JEWS   IN  AMERICAN  WARS      65 

place  of  commanding  officers  who  had  been 
killed  or  disabled  by  wounds,  and  twice  re- 
ceived the  thanks  of  the  United  States  Con- 
gress for  his  gallantry  and  ability.  Surgeon- 
General  Moses  Albert  Levy,  Colonel  Leon 
Dyer,  quartermaster-general  under  General 
Winfield  Scott,  Lieutenant  Henry  Seeligson, 
who  was  sent  for  by  General  Taylor  and  by 
him  complimented  for  his  conspicuous  bra- 
very at  Monterey,  Major  Alfred  Mordecai, 
Sergeant  Jacob  Davis,  Sergeant  Samuel 
Henry,  and  Corporal  Jacob  Hirschborn  are 
a  few  of  the  sons  of  Israel  who  left  valuable 
evidences  of  their  patriotism  in  the  Mexican 
War. 

IN  THE  REGULAR  ARMY  AND  NAVY 

From  the  earliest  period  of  the  republic  to 
the  present  time  the  Jew  has  been  a  conspic- 
uous figure  in  our  regular  army  and  navy; 
and,  in  every  branch  of  the  service,  he  has 
made  an  honorable  record. 

Major  Alfred  Mordecai  is  a  recognized  au- 


66        THE  JEW  AS   A   PATRIOT 

thority  in  the  military  world,  in  the  field  of 
scientific  research,  and  in  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  mechanical  deduction  to  war  uses. 
His  son  and  namesake  has  been  an  instructor 
at  West  Point.  Commodore  Uriah  Phillips 
Levy  at  the  time  of  his  death,  1862,  was  the 
highest  ranking  officer  (flag  officer)  in  our 
navy,  and  upon  his  tombstone  at  Cypress 
Hills  is  recorded  this  fact,  "  He  was  the 
father  of  the  law  for  the  abolition  of  the  bar- 
barous practice  of  corporal  punishment  in  the 
United  States  navy." 

IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR 

In  the  Civil  War,  the  part  the  Jews  took  is 
so  conspicuous  that  it  is  difficult  to  pick  out 
the  most  prominent  men  in  the  conflict. 
Mayer  Asch,  Nathan  D.  Menken,  and  Louis 
H.  Mayer  served  on  the  staff  of  General 
Pope,  Mayer  serving  also  with  Generals 
Rosecrans  and  Grant.  Dr.  Morris  J.  Asch 
served  on  the  staff  of  General  Sheridan. 
Major  Lully,  who  during  the  Hungarian  Rev- 


JEWS   IN   AMERICAN   WARS      67 

olution  served  on  Kossuth's  staff,  rendered 
valuable  service  under  the  direction  of  the 
Secretary  of  War.  Captain  Dessauer,  killed 
at  Chancellorsville,  and  Newman  Borchard 
served  on  the  staff  of  General  Howard.  Max 
Cornheim  and  M.  Szegley  served  on  the  staff 
of  General  Sigel. 

Jewish  staff  officers  in  the  Confederate 
army  and  navy  are  equally  conspicuous, 
showing  the  spirit  of  Hebrew  loyalty  to 
conviction;  for  it  should  always  be  re- 
membered that  while  the  Jews  of  the  North 
outnumbered  the  Jews  of  the  South,  they 
were  for  the  most  part  immigrants  of  a  recent 
date,  while  the  Southern  Jews  were  either  na- 
tives or  citizens  of  long  influential  standing, 
and  therefore  more  interested  in  the  outcome 
of  the  conflict.  Mr.  Wolf  tells  us  that  North 
Carolina  sent  six  Cohen  brothers,  South 
Carolina  five  Moses  brothers;  Georgia, 
Raphael  Moses  and  his  three  sons ;  while  yet 
another  Moses  brother  came  from  Alabama ; 
Arkansas   furnished   three   Cohen   brothers; 


68        THE   JEW  AS   A   PATRIOT 

Virginia  sent  out  three  Levy  brothers; 
Louisiana's  muster-rolls  also  contain  three 
brothers  of  the  same  name;  while  still  an- 
other trio  of  Goldsmiths,  went  forth  from  the 
South,  two  from  Georgia  and  one  from  South 
Carolina.  Mississippi  provided  five  Jonas 
brothers,  Edward,  fighting  in  the  Fiftieth  Il- 
linois against  his  four  Confederate  brothers, 
one  of  whom  was  Benjamin  F.  Jonas,  former 
United  States  Senator  from  Louisiana. 

On  the  Union  side  New  York  alone  fur- 
nished 1,996  soldiers,  among  them  the  five 
Wenk  brothers,  Colonel  Simon  Levy  and  his 
three  sons — Captain  Benjamin  C,  Lieutenant 
Alfred,  and  Captain  Ferdinand,  former  regis- 
ter of  New  York  City.  The  Feder  brothers 
also  came  from  New  York.  From  Ohio, 
which  furnished  the  next  largest  quota,  1,004, 
in  the  War  for  the  Union,  we  have  the  three 
Koch  brothers;  while  Pennsylvania,  which 
sent  527  Hebrews,  also  sent  three  Jewish 
brothers  Emanuel.  Thus,  fourteen  Jewish 
families  sent  53  men  to  both  armies ;  and  ac- 


JEWS   IN  AMERICAN   WARS      69 

cording  to  the  Hon.  Simon  Wolf,  7,884 
Jewish  soldiers  served  in  the  Union  and 
Confederate  armies  during  the  Civil  War, 
although  there  were  only  150,000  Jews  in  the 
country  at  that  time. 

Among  the  Hebrew  officers  in  the  Union 
army  who  achieved  high  distinction  I  may 
mention  Frederick  Knefler,  a  native  of 
Hungary,  who  attained  the  highest  rank 
reached  by  any  Hebrew  during  the  Civil  War. 
He  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  Seventy-ninth 
Indiana  Volunteer  Infantry,  and  fought  his 
way  up  to  the  colonelcy  of  his  regiment,  soon 
rising  to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  and 
then  brevet  major-general  for  meritorious 
services  at  the  battle  of  Chickamauga.  He 
fought  gallantly  in  all  the  principal  battles  of 
the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  under  Generals 
Rosecrans,  Thomas,  and  Grant,  and  took  part 
in  all  the  conflicts  of  Sherman's  march  to  the 
sea. 

Edward  S.  Solomon,  colonel  of  the  Eighty- 
second  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  fought  at 


;o        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

Chattanooga,  Lookout  Mountain,  Mission- 
ary Ridge,  Chancellorsville,  Gettysburg,  and 
throughout  all  the  campaign  in  the  South- 
west, and  was  brevetted  brigadier-general. 
He  was  for  four  years  governor  of  Washing- 
ton Territory  by  the  appointment  of  Presi- 
dent Grant. 

Leopold  Blumenberg,  a  Baltimore  mer- 
chant, a  native  of  Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 
decorated  for  meritorious  service  rendered 
the  Prussian  army  in  the  Prussian-Danish  war 
of  1848,  abandoned  his  business  when  Fort 
Sumter  was  fired  upon,  and  helped  to  or- 
ganize the  Fifth  Regiment,  Maryland  Infan- 
try, of  which  he  was  appointed  major.  His 
regiment  was  engaged  in  the  battle  of  Antie- 
tam  under  him  as  colonel.  He  was  brevetted 
brigadier-general,  and  died  in  1876,  the  result 
of  the  wound  that  he  had  received  at  Antie- 
tam. 

Philip  J.  Joachimsen  helped  to  organize  the 
Fifty-ninth  New  York  Volunteer  Regiment, 
and  went  to  the  front  with  it  as  lieutenant- 


JEWS  IN  AMERICAN  WARS      ft 

colonel.  A  fall  from  his  horse  disqualified 
him  for  military  duty.  He  rendered  great  ser- 
vices, while  stationed  at  Fortress  Monroe,  as 
United  States  paymaster,  and  for  his  assist- 
ance to  General  B.  F.  Butler  at  New  Orleans, 
Governor  Fenton  of  New  York,  in  acknowl- 
edgment of  his  eminent  services,  appointed 
him  brevet  brigadier-general. 

Colonel  Marcus  M.  Spiegel,  of  the  One 
Hundred  and  Twentieth  Ohio  Infantry,  who 
died  before  he  could  receive  the  promotion  to 
a  brigadier-generalship,  for  which  his  su- 
perior officers  recommended  him  for  bravery 
at  Vicksburg  and  Snaggy  Point;  Max  Ein- 
stein, colonel  of  the  Twenty-seventh  Regi- 
ment of  Pennsylvania  Volunteers;  Colonel 
Max  Freedman,  of  the  Fifth  Pennsylvania 
Cavalry ;  Lieutenant-Colonel  Israel  Moses,  of 
Sickels'  Brigade;  Isaac  Moses,  adjutant-gen- 
eral of  the  Third  Army  Corps  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac ;  Colonel  H.  A.  Seligson,  of  Ver- 
mont; Lieutenant-Colonel  Leopold  C.  New- 
man, to  whose  dying  bed  President  Lincoln 


72        THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

brought  his  commission  promoting  him  to 
the  rank  of  brigadier-general ;  Colonel  Ansel 
Hamberg,  of  the  Twelfth  Pennsylvania  In- 
fantry; Abraham  Hart,  brigade  adjutant- 
general  of  the  Seventy-third  Pennsylvania  In- 
fantry; Elias  Leon  Hyneman,  of  the  Fifth 
Pennsylvania  Cavalry;  Captain  Joseph  B. 
Greenhut,  of  Illinois,  who  owns  the  control- 
ling interest  in  the  Siegel-Cooper  Co. ;  Lieu- 
tenant Max  Sachs,  who  was  killed  at  Bowling 
Green;  Colonel  H.  Newbold,  of  the  Four- 
teenth Iowa,  killed  at  Red  River;  Adolph  A. 
Meyer,  inspector-general,  by  special  appoint- 
ment of  President  Lincoln,  transferred  from 
New  Mexico  to  Pennsylvania;  David  Man- 
heim,  colonel  First  Nevada  Cavalry ;  Herman 
Bendell,  surgeon  Eighty-sixth  New  York  In- 
fantry, brevetted  lieutenant-colonel  for  meri- 
torious and  honorable  conduct;  Adjutant 
Abraham  Cohn,  of  New  Hampshire ;  Captain 
A.  Goldman,  of  Maine;  Sergeant  Leopold 
Karpelles,  of  Massachusetts;  Sergeant 
Major  Alexander  M.  Appel,  of  Iowa;  David 


JEWS   IN  AMERICAN  WARS      73 

A.  Brauski,  Henry  Heller,  Abraham  Gum- 
wait,  and  Isaac  Gans,  of  Ohio,  are  a  few  of 
the  Jews  who  distinguished  themselves  upon 
the  battle-fields  of  the  War  for  the  Union. 

Major-General  O.  O.  Howard,  after  speak- 
ing of  one  of  his  Jewish  staff  officers  as  being 
"  of  the  bravest  and  best,"  and  of  another 
killed  at  Chancellorsville  as  being  "  a  true 
friend  and  a  brave  officer,"  and  highly  prais- 
ing two  Jewish  brigadier-generals,  said:  "  In- 
trinsically there  are  no  more  patriotic  men  to 
be  found  in  the  country  than  those  who  claim 
to  be  of  Hebrew  descent  and  who  served  with 
me  in  parallel  command  or  directly  under  my 


JEWS  AND  THE  AMERICAN  ANTISLAVERY 
MOVEMENT 

In  the  political  movements  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  the  Jews  took  a  leading  part  in 
creating  public  opinion.  As  early  as  1853,  a 
fugitive  negro,  arrested  by  a  United  States 
marshal,  was  liberated  by  a  crowd  of  citizens, 


74        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

led  by  Michael  Greenbaum ;  and,  on  the  eve- 
ning of  the  same  day,  a  big  meeting  was  held 
to  ratify  that  act.  The  first  official  call  to  or- 
ganize the  abolition  movement  was  signed  by 
George  Schneider,  Adolph  Loeb,  Julius 
Rosenthal,  Leopold  Mayer,  and  a  cigar- 
dealer,  named  Hanson, — four  Jews  among 
the  five  leaders  of  the  German  population  of 
Chicago  in  a  great  political  movement. 

In  the  columns  of  the  New  York  Tribune 
Michael  Heilprin,  who  had  previous  to  his 
coming  to  America  shown  his  love  of  liberty 
as  a  member  of  Kossuth's  civil  staff  during 
the  Hungarian  Revolution,  vigorously  exon- 
erated the  Old  Testament  from  favoring 
slavery.  Dr.  Edward  Moritz,  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Demokrat;  Rabbi  Samuel  M.  Isaacs,  as 
preacher  and  editor  of  the  Jewish  Messenger; 
Rabbi  Liebman  Adler,  in  Detroit;  Dr.  Hor- 
witz,  in  Cleveland;  and  Dr.  Felsenthal,  in 
Chicago,  were  sowing  the  seeds  of  liberty. 

Rabbi  Sobato  Morais,  on  account  of  his 
antislavery  sentiments,  was  elected  an  hono- 


JEWS   IN  AMERICAN  WARS      75 

rary  member  of  the  Union  League  Club  of 
Philadelphia,  an  honor  shared  with  Rev.  Dr. 
David  Einhorn,  who,  in  1856,  came  to  pro- 
slavery  Baltimore  from  Austria,  where  his 
temple  had  been  closed  against  him  by  the 
imperial  government  on  account  of  his  al- 
leged revolutionary  utterances.  From  the 
sacred  desk  of  the  Har  Sinai  Congregation, 
with  fiery  eloquence,  and  in  his  Sinai,  a  Ger- 
man monthly,  in  unanswerable  arguments, 
Dr.  Einhorn  poured  forth  shot  and  shell  from 
the  Old  Testament  armory  into  the  ranks  of 
the  advocates  of  slavery  and  the  time-serving 
attitude  of  the  churches,  until  driven  out  of 
the  city  and  his  return  prohibited  under  mar- 
tial law. 

Dr.  Einhorn,  in  Baltimore  and  later  in  Phil- 
adelphia, did  as  much  as  any  man  of  his  day 
to  create  the  public  sentiment  which  shivered 
that  colossal  iniquity.  In  New  York,  Judge 
Philip  J.  Joachimsen,  as  Assistant  United 
States  District  Attorney,  vigorously  prose- 
cuted certain  slave-dealers.     Moritz  Pinner, 


76        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

on  January  i,  1859,  began  the  issue  of  an 
abolitionist  paper,  the  Kansas  Post,  at  Kansas 
City.  As  delegate  to  the  National  Repub- 
lican Convention,  he  with  other  Jews,  like 
Judge  Dittenhoefer  of  New  York,  worked 
earnestly  among  the  Germans  for  the  nomi- 
nation of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


THE  SPANISH-AMERICAN  WAR 

The  Jezvish  Year  Book  for  1901  has  had  the 
records  of  the  War  Department  searched, 
and  publishes  the  names  of  over  4,000  Jewish 
soldiers,  who  served  in  the  American  armies 
during  the  war  with  Spain.  The  first  man  to 
volunteer  was  a  Jew,  and  the  first  American 
to  be  killed  in  battle  was  a  Jew.  So  eager 
were  the  Jews  to  prove  their  loyalty  to  the 
United  States  that  5,000  Jews  of  New  York 
offered  their  services  to  the  Governor, 
through  Nathan  Straus,  and  as  chaplain  of 
the  Ninth  Regiment,  N.  G.  N.  Y.,  I  can 
testify  to  the  eagerness  with  which  the  Jews 


JEWS   IN   AMERICAN   WARS      77 

came  to  enlist  and  demonstrate  their  patriot- 
ism when  war  was  declared.  A  careful  pe- 
rusal of  the  rolls  by  States,  as  published  in  the 
Jewish  Year  Book,  ought  to  be  sufficient  evi- 
dence to  refute  the  assertion  made  by  certain 
uninformed  and  perjudiced  persons  that  the 
Jewish  people  were  not  patriotic  Americans. 
The  slur  upon  the  patriotism  of  the  Jew  can- 
not hold  up  its  head  in  the  presence  of  the 
records  of  the  War  Department,  which  rati- 
fied more  than  4,000  furloughs,  which  were 
granted  to  such  soldiers  as  desired  to  cele- 
brate Rosh  Hashanah  and  Yom  Kippur  at 
home. 

"  When  war  was  declared,"  Captain  A.  W. 
Murray  says,  "  the  Jewish  press  throughout 
the  country  reminded  their  people  of  the 
wanton  persecution  of  the  Hebrews  by  Spain, 
covering  many  years.  They  had  been  driven 
from  their  country  and  deprived  of  their  prop- 
erty by  the  cruel,  unjust  Spaniards.  The 
young  Hebrew  men  did  not  require  urging. 
Their  love  for  America  alone  was  enough,  and 


78        THE   JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

they  flocked  to  the  standard  of  liberty,  the 
Stars  and  Stripes." 

It  is  a  matter  of  history  that  they  fought 
as  bravely  before  Manila  and  Santiago  de 
Cuba  as  they  did  at  Leipsic  and  Waterloo; 
under  Kossuth  and  Garibaldi;  before  Sebas- 
topol,  Sadowa,  and  Sedan.  The  first  man  to 
fall  in  the  attack  on  Manila  was  Sergeant 
Maurice  Justh,  of  the  First  California  Volun- 
teers (which  regiment  numbered  ioo  Jews). 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  the  intrepid  leader  of 
the  Rough  Riders,  declared  that  in  that  brave 
regiment,  which  has  challenged  the  admira- 
tion of  the  world,  the  most  astonishing  cour- 
age was  displayed  by  the  seven  Jewish  Rough 
Riders,  one  of  whom  became  a  lieutenant. 
The  Astor  Battery  numbered  ten  Jews 
among  their  ninety-nine  men.  Fifteen  Jews 
went  down  to  death  in  the  Maine,  de- 
stroyed in  the  harbor  of  Havana;  and  there 
was  not  an  engagement  during  the  war  with 
Spain,  in  which  Hebrews  did  not  take  part. 
Many  Jewish  names  appear  on  the  list  of 


JEWS  IN  AMERICAN   WARS      79 

killed  and  wounded,  while  the  much-maligned 
Russian  Jews  furnished  more  than  double 
their  share  of  volunteers.  Commander 
Adolph  Marix,  of  the  navy,  a  Hebrew,  was 
Judge  Advocate  of  the  Maine  Disaster  Board 
of  Inquiry,  and  many  cases  could  be  cited 
where  Americans  of  Hebrew  extraction  per- 
formed gallant  and  meritorious  service  under 
the  flag  in  Porto  Rico,  Cuba,  and  in  the 
Philippines. 


Jews  as    Soldiers   in   the  Armies 
of  Europe 


Love  of  people  for  the  country  in  which  they  dwell, 
and  love  of  the  country  for  the  people  that  dwell  in  it, 
make  the  patriots.  Where  were  such  Jewish  patriots 
made?  Name  the  countries  of  the  Old  World  which, 
during  the  eighteen  centuries  that  the  Jews  dwelt 
among  them,  dearly  loved  them,  sacredly  protected 
their  rights,  promoted  their  good,  ruled  them  with  just 
laws,  made  no  distinction  between  them  and  their  citi- 
zens of  other  faiths,  imposed  no  burdensome  duty  upon 
them,  and  conscientiously  strove  to  further  the  peace 
and  good  will  between  their  Jewish  and  non-Jewish 
people.  Tell  me,  I  pray  you,  whether  the  treatment  the 
world  accorded  to  the  Jew,  to  the  homeless  and  friend- 
less, and  to  the  weary  and  innocently  suffering  fugitive, 
was  of  a  nature  to  make  his  heart  and  soul  and  mind 
all  aglow  with  the  most  passionate  patriotism?  Name, 
I  pray  you,  the  country  that  has  ever  made  patriots  of 
people  whom  it  lowered  to  the  filth  of  the  earth,  from 
whom  it  tore  every  human  right,  upon  whom  it  visited 
barbarous  cruelties,  from  whose  contact  it  shrunk  as  if 
they  were  the  stalking  pestilence,  whom  it  hated  with 
the  hatred  of  a  devil,  and  whom  it  persecuted  with  the 
relentless  wrath  of  a  fiend.  .  .  .  Deny  them  the  right  of 
citizenship,  treat  them  as  chattels  of  the  state,  enact 
especially  degrading  laws  for  them,  impose  humiliating 
burdens  upon  them,  prohibit  them  all  intercourse  with 
their  Christian  fellow  men,  refuse  them  justice,  protec- 
tion, forbid  them  entrance  to  the  seats  of  learning,  deny 
them  the  right  of  following  any  of  the  higher  vocations 
of  life,  compel  them  to  pursue  the  most  contemptible 
trades,  brand  them  publicly  by  compelling  them  to 
wear  the  degrading  gaberdine,  make  them  the  target 
of  the  people's  jeers  and  derision  and  abuse, — do  this, 
treat  that  people  as  the  Old  World  has  treated  the  Jews 
during  the  eighteen  centuries,  and  then  tell  me  how 
many  patriots  such  treatment  has  ripened. — Joseph 
Krauskopf. 

to 


CHAPTER  III 

JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS  IN  THE  ARMIES 
OF   EUROPE 

Goldwin  Smith  some  years  ago  wrote: 
"  The  Jews  have  now  been  everywhere  made 
voters;  to  make  them  patriots  while  they  re- 
main genuine  Jews  is  beyond  the  legislator's 
power." 

Until  very  recently,  during  the  present  cen- 
tury, the  Jews  were  rarely  ever  permitted  the 
opportunity  of  fighting  for  their  country ;  but, 
whenever  they  have  been  allowed  to  enter  the 
lists,  they  have  proved  that  the  contumely 
heaped  upon  them  has  not  quenched  their 
manhood.  What  spiritual  courage  it  required 
for  the  whole  race  to  survive  at  all,  during  fif- 
teen centuries  of  the  most  relentless  and  dia- 
bolical persecution  and  burnings  at  the  stake 
83 


84        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

which  might  have  been  avoided  by  the  simple 
act  of  baptism!  I  wish  that  every  American 
could  read  the  stories  of  the  old  European 
Ghettos.  Excluded  from  civic  privileges 
and  from  political  office;  not  admitted  into 
any  military  organization;  denied  the  power 
to  own  any  real  estate;  shut  out  from  all 
trades  and  industrial  branches,  so  that  Moses 
Mendelssohn,  a  hundred  years  ago,  pithily 
responded  to  the  reproach,  "  Our  hands  are 
bound,  and  we  are  blamed  for  not  using 
them " ;  forced  to  pay  liberally  for  the 
privilege  of  residence  in  the  city,  and,  as  their 
proximity  to  a  church  was  looked  upon 
as  a  contamination  and  a  desecration,  com- 
pelled to  huddle  together  in  a  street  set 
aside  for  them ;  shut  up  like  marked  creatures 
in  a  pen;  shut  off  from  conversation  with 
others,  as  though  their  touch  was  unholy  and 
their  presence  a  curse ;  locked  in  every  night, 
so  that  all  intercourse  between  them  and  the 
Christians  might  be  impossible, — in  these 
prison-like  tenements  for  well-nigh  four  hun- 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  85 

dred  years,  their  bodies  and  minds  were 
stunted.  They  were  forbidden  not  only  to 
live  in  the  locality,  which  they  might  prefer, 
but,  denied  the  sidewalk  in  the  daytime,  they 
had  to  take  to  the  middle  of  the  street ;  they 
had  to  remove  their  hats  to  every  passer-by, 
who  would  call  out,  "  Jew,  make  your  bow  " ; 
they  were  denied  even  fresh  air,  a  right  not 
denied  to  the  beasts — for  in  Frankfort  the 
Jews  were  not  permitted  even  to  walk  in  the 
squares  surrounded  with  trees  and  flowers: 
they  might  walk  in  the  path  leading  to  them. 
One  general  rule  was :  "  No  Jew  allowed  on 
a  green  spot."  The  public  squares  of  the 
city  they  dared  not  walk  upon.  If  a  Jew 
presumed  to  walk  upon  any  of  these  for- 
bidden places,  passers-by  would  snatch  their 
hats  from  their  heads.  The  only  day  the  Jews 
were  tolerated  even  on  the  side  of  the  space 
on  which  the  City  Hall  stood  was  on  New 
Year's  Day,  when  they  came  to  the  City  Hall, 
with  their  gift  of  fine  spices,  which  they  were 
expected  to  give  to  every  councilman,  to  ex- 


86       THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

press  their  allegiance  to  the  city  fathers  and 
convey  their  gratitude  for  the  privilege  of 
living  in  the  worst  spot  in  the  city.  This  was 
the  only  occasion  when  the  Jew  dared  to 
enter  the  City  Hall  from  the  front ;  if,  at  any 
other  time,  he  had  any  business,  he  had  to 
come  in  through  the  back  door;  and,  when 
the  town  council  showed  themselves  power- 
less to  guard  the  Jews,  their  protection  re- 
verted to  the  Emperor  and  they  became  his 
private  property. 

What  was  true  of  Frankfort  was  true  of 
Prague.  During  the  Crusades,  mobs  fell  upon 
the  Jewish  communities,  dragged  them  to 
baptism,  carnage  and  plunder  fell  upon  those 
who  resisted.  The  story  is  the  same  all  over 
Europe.  Read  the  awful  scenes  enacted,  and 
you  will  be  thrilled  with  admiration  for  the 
constancy,  heroism,  and  bravery,  which  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews  endured  in  the 
dark  years  and  centuries,  in  which  they  with- 
stood horrors,  which  make  our  blood  chill  to 
think  of. 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS  IN   EUROPE  87 

In  Rome,  where  the  Jews  lived  only  on  suf- 
ferance, one  of  the  greatest  indignities  to 
which  they  were  subjected,  was  their  compul- 
sory participation  in  the  races  on  the  Corso  at 
the  Carnival,  and  amid  the  gibes  and  jeers  of 
the  attendants  Jews  were  forced  to  race  with 
asses,  buffaloes,  and  Barbary  horses.  Russia's 
treatment  of  the  Jew  is  the  foulest  stain  on 
her  blotched  escutcheon. 

Can  the  Jew  be  a  patriot?  Let  a  Jew,  Dr. 
Krauskopf,  answer :  "  Ask  Egypt,  Babylon, 
Syria,  Rome,  and  listen  to  their  accounts  of 
Jewish  patriotism;  seek  out  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth  another  people  that, 
though  but  small  in  numbers,  dares  to  strug- 
gle for  a  national  existence,  for  political  inde- 
pendence, against  a  whole  world  in  arms, 
and  though  a  thousand  times  defeated, 
though  a  thousand  times  crushed  to  earth, 
though  suffering  as  no  other  nation  before  or 
since  was  ever  called  upon  to  suffer,  though 
driven  from  their  native  soil,  though  made  to 
pine  in  a  thousand  dungeons,  and  made  to 


88        THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

furnish  murderous  sport  to  the  wild  beasts  of 
a  thousand  Colosseums,  though  made  to  fur- 
nish food  for  the  flames  of  a  thousand  pyres 
and  stakes  to  appease  the  appetites  of  a 
thousand  bloodthirsty  mobs,  still  refuses  to 
surrender,  still  struggles  on  for  national  exist- 
ence, for  political  independence;  find  such  a 
nation,  outside  the  Jewish  people,  and  we 
shall  relinquish  forever  any  claim  of  patriot- 
ism for  the  Jews.  Find  a  more  passionate,  a 
more  fervent  patriotism  than  that  which 
breathes  through  the  Lamentations  of  Jere- 
miah, than  that  which  silenced  the  harps  and 
songs  of  Judea's  captive  sons  and  daughters 
by  the  streams  of  Babylon,  than  that  which 
makes  Israel  wish  that  their  right  hand  should 
wither  at  their  side,  and  their  tongue  cleave 
to  the  roof  of  their  mouth,  if  ever  they  should 
forget  Jerusalem;  that  makes  the  orthodox 
pious  Jew  wish  even  to-day,  after  eigh- 
teen centuries  of  expulsion,  to  be  buried  with 
his  head  turned  toward  Jerusalem,  and  if  pos- 
sible, to  have  a  pillow  filled  with  Palestin- 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS  IN   EUROPE  89 

ian  sand  under  his  head;  that  leads  him  to 
turn  his  face  in  prayer  toward  Jerusalem, 
that  makes  him  repeat  at  each  anniversary  of 
the  Deliverance  from  Egyptian  Bondage  the 
profoundest  longing  of  his  heart  that  the 
coming  year  might  find  him  restored  in  Jeru- 
salem;— find  a  love  of  fatherland,  a  patriot- 
ism, equal  to  this,  and  never  a  word  shall  we 
again  breathe  about  the  Jewish  patriotism.,, 

NO   REFUGE   BUT  THE  GRAVE 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  Jews  had  no  refuge 
but  the  grave.  You  can  hardly  expect  a  race 
to  love  a  country  in  which  they  were  op- 
pressed, robbed,  and  murdered.  And  yet  in 
those  benighted  ages  the  Jews  were  not  want- 
ing in  patriotism  in  those  countries  where  the 
governments  occasionally  treated  them  as 
human  beings. 

In  the  Spanish  battles  they  fought  as 
bravest  knights.  Forty  thousand  were  ar- 
rayed against  Alphonso  VI.,  while  he  had  as 
many  Jews  fighting  on  his  side.     They  also 


90        THE  JEW  AS   A   PATRIOT 

fought  valiantly  for  Alphonso  VIII.  Al- 
phonso  X.  of  Castile  rewarded  them  en  masse 
for  their  assistance  against  Seville,  and  gave 
them,  when  the  enemy's  land  was  divided,  a 
village  which  was  called  Aldea  de  los  Judeos. 
They  fought  heroically  for  Don  Pedro,  even 
after  the  Black  Prince  had  forsaken  him,  de- 
fending Burgos  to  the  last  man,  saying 
that  "  God  would  never  have  it  that  they 
should  deny  obedience  to  their  natural  lord, 
Don  Pedro,  or  to  his  rightful  successor  " — 
a  constancy  that  the  prudent  king,  Don  En- 
rico, very  much  esteemed,  saying:  "  Such 
vassals  as  those  were,  by  kings  and  great 
men,  worthy  of  much  account,  seeing  they 
held  greater  respect  to  the  fidelity  they  owed 
to  their  king,  although  conquered  and  dead, 
than  to  the  present  fortune  of  the  con- 
queror." And  awhile  after,  receiving  very 
honorable  conditions,  they  gave  themselves 
over,  and  Don  Enrico  recognized  publicly 
their  patriotism. 

King  Philip,  the  Handsome,  of  France,  is 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  91 

said  to  have  had  30,000  Jews  in  his  army,  in 
his  expedition  (1297)  against  Count  Guy  of 
Flanders,  who  had  renounced  his  allegiance 
to  him. 

Notwithstanding  the  light  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, pillages  and  expulsions  of  the  Jews  con- 
tinued to  be  the  order  of  the  day.  But  always 
and  everywhere,  where  the  Jew  found  a  friend 
in  his  country,  the  country  found  a  friend  in 
him.  History  does  not  tell  the  story  of  braver 
defense  than  that  of  the  Polish  territory, — a 
mighty  struggle  maintained  by  Jews  during 
the  onslaught  of  the  Cossacks  into  Poland 
during  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 

A  writer  in  the  Jewish  World  points  to 
Prague  as  holding  the  oldest  Jewish  military 
record,  for  in  the  Alten  Synagogue  is  still 
shown  the  much-worn  flag  of  Ferdinand 
III.,  given  the  Jews  in  1648  for  their  coura- 
geous defense  of  Prague  against  the  Swedes. 
The  Jews  were  permitted  to  serve  in  the  Aus- 
trian army  as  far  back  as  1781 ;  and  amongst 
the  Austrians,  who  served  in  the  international 


92        THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

war  of  the  first  decade  of  the  century  was 
Emanuel  Eppinger,  who  received  decorations 
from  the  hands  of  two  emperors.  A  record 
of  1866  mentions  the  bravery  of  Moses 
Weber,  who,  after  completing  service,  volun- 
teered and  fought  at  Skalitz.  A  comrade, 
Puchreiner,  was  wounded  in  both  legs. 
Weber,  amid  a  rain  of  bullets,  drew  him  out 
of  the  lines  and,  throwing  him  over  his  shoul- 
ders, carried  him  to  the  rear,  and  then  re- 
turned to  the  battle,  where,  the  officers  being 
shot  down,  he  gallantly  took  command  of  his 
company.  In  1893,  there  were  40,344  Jewish 
privates  and  2,179  Jewish  officers  in  the  Aus- 
tro-Hungarian  army,  a  figure  equal  to  3.9  per 
cent,  of  the  total  force.  Heinrich  Porges,  a 
Jewish  colonel  of  the  standing  infantry,  was 
recently  raised  to  the  rank  of  general-major 
and  entrusted  with  the  responsible  post  of 
commanding  the  important  fortress  of  Prze- 
mysl  in  Galicia.  At  the  same  time  a  Jew  was 
appointed  director-general  of  the  army  med- 
ical department — the  highest  military  medical 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  93 

position  in  Austria.  Colonel  Edward  von 
Schweitzer,  commandant  of  the  26th  Regi- 
ment of  Infantry,  is  one  of  Austria's  most  dis- 
tinguished officers,  who  was  received  at  St. 
Petersburg  in  audience  with  the  Tsar,  who 
decorated  him  with  a  high  order.  Of 
the  numerous  famous  Jewish  officers  in 
the  Hapsburg  monarchy,  I  will  mention 
only  one  more  name,  that  of  the  former  com- 
mandant of  militia  at  the  Briinn  garrison, 
Colonel  Alexander  von  Eisz.  This  officer,  a 
favorite  of  Kaiser  Franz-Joseph,  distinguished 
himself  so  greatly  in  the  various  campaigns 
he  has  gone  through,  that  his  breast  is  thickly 
covered  with  orders  of  the  highest  rank.  Be- 
sides the  large  golden  medal  "  for  valor  "  and 
several  other  insignia,  he  possesses  also  the 
Russian  Order  of  the  Crown.  On  one  oc- 
casion he  was  to  have  received  the  Marie- 
Theresa  Cross,  given  only  for  most  distin- 
guished bravery.  Not  more  than  six  soldiers 
in  Austria  at  present  possess  this,  the  highest 
military    decoration.       But    Queen    Marie- 


94        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

Theresa  inserted  in  the  statutes,  founding  the 
Order,  a  clause  that  it  should  be  bestowed  on 
Christians  alone ;  and  for  this  reason  von  Eisz 
did  not  receive  it.  He  was  told  that  if  he  al- 
lowed himself  to  be  baptized  he  would  obtain 
it,  but  this  suggestion  he  promptly  refused  to 
follow. 

The  Franco-Prussian  War  was,  of  course, 
the  great  European  war  in  which  most  Jews 
were  engaged,  and  where  they  showed  their 
love  of  the  Fatherland  in  an  unexampled  de- 
gree. Phillipson,  in  his  "  Memoirs,"  has  col- 
lected a  list  of  2,531  Jewish  soldiers  in  this 
war,  and  this  list  did  not  include  the  reports 
from  the  largest  Jewish  communities,  Berlin, 
Breslau,  Posen,  and  Frankfort. 

Germany  had  already,  in  1866,  in  the  war 
with  Austria,  1,025  Jews  who  saw  active  ser- 
vice, and  a  large  number  of  these  were 
promoted  for  bravery  and  good  conduct ;  but 
in  1870-71  no  less  than  4,492  Jews  took  part 
in  the  various  battles.  These  represented 
1,101  Jewish  congregations.    Ten  per  cent., 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN    EUROPE  95 

or,  to  be  accurate,  448,  were  wounded  or 
killed,  and  373  received  the  Iron  Cross  or 
decorations  equal  in  importance  to  the  medal. 

EQUAL  RIGHTS  MAKE  GOOD  CITIZENS 

Cremieux  said :  "  If  you  persecute,  you 
make  slaves;  only  by  declaring  equal  rights 
for  all  will  you  make  good  citizens."  King 
Frederick  William  III.  had  no  sooner  given 
the  Jews  of  Prussia  equality  with  their  Chris- 
tian fellow  citizens,  in  1812,  than  they  re- 
sponded readily  to  the  summons  of  their 
king. 

According  to  the  Prussian  "  Military 
Gazette  "  of  1843,  there  served  in  the  cam- 
paigns of  1813-14,  out  of  the  then  small 
Jewish  population,  263  volunteers  and  80  reg- 
ulars. In  181 5,  when  the  Prussian  army  had 
its  fullest  strength  and  the  Jewish  soldiers 
were  more  numerous,  Hardenberg,  the  Prus- 
sian Chancellor,  in  a  letter  to  Count  von 
Grote  dated  January  4th,  gave  the  Jews  the 
following  testimony: 


96        THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

"  The  history  of  our  late  war  with  France 
shows  already  that  the  Jews  have,  by  their 
faithful  allegiance  to  the  state  conferring 
equal  rights  on  them,  proved  worthy  of  it. 
The  young  men  of  the  Jewish  faith  were  the 
military  comrades  of  their  Christian  fellow 
citizens,  of  whom  we  can  present  instances  of 
true  heroism  and  glorious  braving  of  the  dan- 
gers of  war.  The  rest  of  the  Jewish  inhab- 
itants, especially  the  ladies,  vied  with  the 
Christians  in  all  kinds  of  patriotic  sacrifices." 

And  what  reward  did  the  Jews  receive  for 
their  sacrifices  to  the  country?  They  were 
denied  public  employment.  They  could  not 
get  appointments  as  teachers,  serve  as  jurors, 
nor  practice  law,  unless  they  submitted  to  bap- 
tism. They  were  not  even  allowed  to  be  drug- 
gists. In  the  newly  won  French  provinces 
the  same  laws  were  made  to  apply. 

At  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  the  Jews,  in  an 
address  published  in  1832,  made  the  following 
complaint : 

"  In  the  war  called  by  them  [the  despots] 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  97 

the  war  of  independence  we,  too,  have  borne 
arms.  Before  that  war,  we  of  Frankfort,  as 
everywhere  else  in  Germany  where  the 
French  law  was  ruling,  enjoyed  equal  rights 
with  our  Christian  fellow  citizens.  When  we 
returned  from  the  battle-fields,  however,  we 
met  our  fathers  and  brothers,  whom  we  had 
left  as  free  citizens,  again  as  serfs,  and  such  we 
have  been  until  to-day.  They  have  assumed 
over  us  the  right  of  the  past,  viz.,  to  diminish 
our  population,  as  they  do  not  let  us  contract 
more  than  fifteen  marriages  a  year,  though 
we  number  five  thousand.  They  now  advance 
against  us  that  we  came  from  the  Orient  and 
were  strangers  in  the  land,  and  that  we  con- 
sidered even  our  Christian  countrymen  as 
such.  However,  this  is  our  creed,  this  the 
doctrine  inherited  from  our  fathers :  *  When 
God  created  the  world,  he  created  man  and 
woman,  not  master  and  slave,  Jews  and 
Christians,  rich  and  poor/  Borne  wrote  in 
1819:  'After  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon 
the  Jewish  liberties  were  here  and  there  de- 


98        THE   JEW  AS   A   PATRIOT 

cried  as  pernicious  to  the  state.  The  Jews 
were  also  suspected  of  being  friendly  to  the 
French  dominion.  Their  peculiarities  were 
such  that  their  haters  would  not  tolerate 
them  as  citizens.  Only  Germans,  such  as, 
according  to  Tacitus,  came  forth  from  the 
woods  with  red  hair  and  light-blue  eyes,  were 
in  their  opinion  entitled  to  civil  rights, 
whereas  the  dark-complexioned  Jews  con- 
trasted too  disagreeably  with  them/  " 

Their  participation  in  the  war  for  indepen- 
dence availed  the  Jews  nothing.  The  "  Mili- 
tary Gazette  "  has  put  their  number  enlisted 
from  1814  to  1842,  at  3,314. 

The  Constituent  Assembly  at  Berlin,  in 
1848,  had  declared  all  civil  and  political  rights 
independent  of  any  religious  denomination, 
whereby  the  Jews  also  gained  their  liberties. 
But  a  reaction  set  in  and  once  more  they  had 
to  fight  for  their  liberties.  It  was  not  until 
1869  that  the  law  of  the  North  German  Con- 
federacy delivered  them  from  the  mediaeval 
yoke   they   had   so   long   borne.     Political 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  99 

equality  is  sanctioned  by  law,  but  is  still  far 
from  being  an  accomplished  fact. 

Four  thousand  seven  hundred  and  three 
Jews  of  Germany  have  been  traced  by  name 
and  address,  who  served  against  France  in 
1870-71;  and  411  were  decorated  for  distin- 
guished gallantry.  There  are  in  the  German 
army  to-day  over  6,000  Jews.  Germans  have 
no  right  to  ask,  "  Are  there  any  Jewish 
officers?  "  since  Jewish  subjects  of  Germany 
are  refused  the  right  of  having  their  services 
in  the  army  rewarded  in  the  same  manner  as 
their  Christian  comrades.  If  the  principle 
prevailed  in  the  German  army,  "  Equal  rights 
for  all,"  we  would  undoubtedly  find  as  many 
qualified  officers  of  the  Jewish  faith  as  exist 
in  the  other  European  countries. 

Can  the  Jew  be  a  patriot?  Moses  Men- 
delssohn, the  illustrious  philosopher,  to  whose 
hospitable  home  flocked  Nicolai,  Lessing, 
Goethe,  Herder,  Wieland,  Hemmings,  Abt, 
Moritz,  Camp,  etc.,  one  of  the  greatest 
thinkers  since  Socrates,  any  nation's  orrici- 


ioo      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

ment,  was  merely  tolerated  as  the  "  Shop- 
man," of  a  Berlin  merchant,  Bernhard,  his 
coreligionist,  and  whose  name  was  struck  by 
Frederick  the  Great  from  the  list  of  can- 
didates for  membership  in  the  Academy  of 
Berlin ;  and  yet  no  German  ever  pleaded  with 
intenser  patriotism  than  did  this  eminent 
Jewish  genius  for  the  emancipation  of  Ger- 
man literature  and  thought  from  the  yoke  of 
French  dilettanteism.  He  cries  out  with  in- 
dignation :  "  Werden  denn  die  Deutschen 
niemals  ihren  Eigner  erkennen?  Wollen  sie 
ewig  ihr  Gold  fur  das  Flittergold  ihrer  Nach- 
barn  umtauschen?  "  Heine  was  despised  in 
the  land  of  his  birth  because  he  was  a  Jew; 
yet  the  despised  and  exiled  Jew  sheds 
tears  of  homesickness  and  sorrow  when 
thinking  of  Germany,  his  beloved  Father- 
land, whose  literature  he  had  so  nobly 
enriched.  And  though  for  twenty-five  years 
resident  in  Paris,  and  thoroughly  in  sym- 
pathy with  everything  French,  he  never  for- 
got that  he  was  a  German,  and  never  lost  his 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  101 

love  for  the  fatherland,  as  these  well-known 
lines  testify: 

"  I  am  a  German  poet 
Of  goodly  German  fame, 
Where  their  best  names  are  spoken 
My  own  they  are  sure  to  name." 

Bismarck  had  Jewish  blood  in  his  veins. 
His  mother's  father,  Anastasius  Menken,  one 
of  the  favorite  bureaucrats  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  was  of  Hebrew  parentage.  The  He- 
brew banker  of  Berlin,  Baron  von  Bleichroe- 
der,  was  Bismarck's  most  trusted  confidant. 
Indeed,  while  in  office  he  was  so  disposed 
towards  the  Jews  that  he  even  discussed  the 
advisability  of  marrying  his  sons  to  Jewesses, 
on  the  ground  that  it  would  not  only  bring 
money  into  the  family  again,  but  likewise  im- 
prove morally  and  physically  the  Bismarck 
breed. 

The  late  Count  von  Blumenthal,  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  strategists  of  modern  Ger- 
many, was  by  birth  and  by  inherited  genius 
a  Jew.      He  was   on   the   general   staff   of 


102      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

General  von  Bonin  in  the  Schleswig-Holstein 
army.  He  soon  became  famous  for  brilliant 
capabilities,  and  was  rapidly  promoted,  viz. : 
general  staff  officer  of  the  Mobile  Division  in 
the  Electorate  of  Hesse ;  major  in  the  grand 
general  staff;  adjutant  of  Prince  Frederick 
Charles,  one  of  the  great  commanders  of  the 
Franco-German  War ;  colonel  in  command  of 
a  regiment,  and  chief  of  the  staff  of  the  Third 
Army  Corps.  In  1864  he  was  promoted  to  be 
major-general.  In  the  Austrian  War  of  1866 
he  was  chief  of  the  general  staff  of  the  Second 
Army  of  the  Crown  Prince.  In  the  Franco- 
German  War  he  was  in  supreme  command  of 
the  Third  Army.  He  was  made  a  count  in 
1883,  and  a  field-marshal  in  1888.  Several 
times  he  was  intrusted  with  important  mis- 
sions to  England,  and  his  decorations  were 
numerous,  including  the  Ordre  Pour  le 
Merite,  one  of  the  rarest  distinctions  in  the 
army. 

Colonel  von  Mossier,  Aide-de-Camp  of  Em- 
peror William,  is  a  Jew  both  by  birth  and  faith. 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  103 

Colonel  von  Mossier  commands  the  favorite 
regiment  of  Hussars  of  Emperor  William,  and 
he  was  ennobled  by  the  latter  in  1890.  His 
father's  family  name  was  Moses. 

In  the  Hungarian  Revolution  there  were  no 
less  than  35,000  Israelites.  As  by  magic  they 
were  drawn  toward  Kossuth,  who  preached 
liberty  and  equality  and  at  whose  hands  they 
expected  redemption  from  civil  and  political 
degradation. 

The  first  soldiers  that  stormed  Plevna  were 
Roumanian  Jews,  and  the  generals  on  both 
sides  were  Jews.  In  the  last  war  between 
Turkey  and  Greece,  Giuseppe  Misan,  a  Jew, 
received  the  first  wound.* 

*  The  Sultan  of  Turkey  has  gone  on  record  as  saying 
that  there  is  not  one  of  his  Jewish  subjects,  upon  whom 
he  can  fail  to  rely  in  time  of  war.  When  the  war  with 
Greece  broke  out,  Jews  from  all  over  the  Turkish 
Empire  volunteered  their  services,  as  they  did  in  the 
war  with  Russia.  Forty  Jewish  soldiers  were  rewarded 
by  the  Sultan  with  medals  in  special  recognition  of 
their  gallantry  on  the  field  during  the  Graeco-Turkish 
War. 


104      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

IN  THE  ITALIAN  ARMY 

The  Jews  were  first  permitted  to  enter  the 
Italian  army  in  1848,  and  immediately  235 
volunteered,  while,  the  year  following,  five 
Jews  fell  in  the  defense  of  Rome  against  the 
French.  There  were  Italian  Jews  in  the 
Crimean  War,  and  250  were  fighting  as 
volunteers  in  1859,  and  a  large  number  were 
decorated.  Of  the  36,000  Jews  in  Italy  in 
1866,  there  were  380  who  took  to  arms.  A 
few  of  these  Italian-Jewish  soldiers  had  re- 
markable careers.  The  commandant  at  the 
fortress  of  Turin,  Lieutenant-General  Gui- 
seppe  Ottolenghi,  was  trained  in  the  military 
profession.  He  was  wounded  in  i860  at  the 
siege  of  Gaete  and,  though  wounded,  he  re- 
ceived the  silver  medal  for  hunting  the 
brigand  band  of  Malacarne  out  of  Basilicata. 
In  1866  he  received  the  then  highest  medal, 
the  Cross  of  Savoy,  and  represented  Italy  in 
the  commission  which  demarcated  the  fron- 
tiers of  Turkey  and  Montenegro.     Colonel 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  10$ 

Enrico  Guastalla,  who  started  as  a  volunteer 
in  1848,  was  a  friend  of  Mazzini,  and  joined 
Garibaldi;  after  being  laid  up  for  a  month 
from  a  wound  received  at  Voturno,  he  re- 
turned to  his  regiment  and  fought  at  Como, 
Brescia,  Lonato,  Salo,  and  Deserzana  in  1886. 
In  Italy  1.4  per  cent,  of  all  Italian  Jews  are 
in  the  army,  against  1.1  of  all  Italians.  And 
out  of  every  five  Jews  serving  in  the  Italian 
army,  one  is  an  officer,  against  one  in  twelve 
in  the  Italian  army  as  a  whole. 

JEWS   IN   THE   ROUMANIAN   AND   RUSSIAN 
ARMIES 

No  Jewish  soldier  in  the  Roumanian  army 
can  be  promoted  to  a  commission,  however 
brave  and  loyal  he  may  be.  Even  if  he  enlists 
for  a  second  term  of  service,  he  does  not,  like 
others,  who  do  so,  earn  a  pension  thereby. 
An  army  surgeon,  if  he  be  a  Jew,  only  ranks 
as  a  common  soldier,  whereas  his  professional 
inferiors  rank  as  officers.  No  Jews  are  ad- 
mitted into  the  military  schools,  and,  how- 


io6      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

ever  high  the  scholastic  or  university  distinc- 
tions and  grades  of  a  Jew,  he  has  to  serve  as  a 
N  ranker  "  for  three  years  instead  of  being  let 
off  as  a  "  volontaire  "  with  one  year's  service. 
Such  is  the  treatment  accorded  to  the  30,000 
Jews  belonging  to  the  active  army  and  re- 
serves of  the  Roumanian  State. 

There  are  at  least  75,000  Jews  in  the  Rus- 
sian army  in  active  service;  and  under  the 
most  adverse  circumstances  we  hear  oc- 
casionally of  a  Jew  even  in  the  Russian  army 
achieving  distinction,  like  the  late  Prof. 
Schapiro,  who  took  an  honorable  part  in  the 
Russo-Turkish  War  in  1871,  and  so  distin- 
guished himself  in  the  medical  service  of  the 
army  that  he  was  appointed  assistant  profes- 
sor at  the  St.  Petersburg  Military  Medical 
Academy.  He  became  there  very  popular  as 
a  lecturer,  and  wrote  extensively  on  scientific 
subjects.  In  1898  he  was  rewarded  with  the 
title  of  professor — a  very  rare  honor  for  a  Jew 
in  Russia.  The  general  who  conquered  the 
Central  Asian  provinces  which  belong  to  Rus- 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS  IN   EUROPE  107 

sia  was  a  Jew  by  birth.  A  Jewish  soldier  of 
the  Russian  Eleventh  Infantry  Regiment  re- 
cently arrived  in  London  after  nine  months' 
service  with  the  Russian  troops  in  China.  He 
estimates  that  there  were  about  5,000  Jews 
amongst  the  Russian  soldiers.  His  own 
brigade  contained  about  580  Jews,  18  of 
whom  were  killed  in  different  engagements, 
besides  a  number  wounded. 

THE  JEWS  IN  FRANCE 

The  year  1793  guaranteed  to  the  Jews  of 
France  equality  with  French  citizens ;  but,  as 
the  Dreyfus  affair  shows,  the  liberty  of  and 
justice  to  the  Jew  have  not  even  yet  passed 
from  the  statute  into  reality.  Still,  in  spite  of 
all,  the  Jews  of  France  rallied  with  equal 
promptness  under  the  banner  of  the  empire 
and  the  republic,  when  the  safety  of  their 
country  was  imperilled.  How  did  the  Jews  in 
Paris  behave  themselves  in  the  midst  of  the 
excesses  that  characterized  the  Reign  of 
Terror?    They  did  not  signalize  their  eman- 


io8      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

cipation  by  any  of  those  excesses  of  which  the 
revolutionary  period  was  fruitful.  If  they 
figured  whenever  they  might  proclaim  their 
aspirations  towards  liberty,  they  were  never 
seen  where  such  aspirations  assumed  a  vio- 
lent and  irregular  character.  In  1790,  a  Jew, 
Ravel  de  Terney,  served  with  honor  in  the 
National  Guard,  where  he  commanded  the 
fourth  division.  In  1791  Dael  de  Tacin,  bour- 
geois, was  among  the  fourteen  electors 
chosen  by  the  section  of  the  Temple  for  the 
department  of  Paris,  and  Berthe  Pere  was 
among  the  33  electors  in  the  Quatre-Na- 
tions.  In  1792  two  Jews  named  Berthe  were 
captains,  one  in  the  First  Legion,  the  other  in 
the  Second  Legion,  of  the  National  Guard. 
The  Ravel  de  Tacin,  mentioned  above,  also 
fulfilled  the  functions  of  Assessor  to  Justice 
of  the  Peace  in  the  Section  of  the  Temple,  as 
did  Jacobs,  a  jeweller,  in  the  Section  of 
Thermes  de  Julien.  The  succeeding  years 
saw  an  increase  of  Jewish  Assessors  to  magis- 
trates and  of  electors.    In  1794  Fribourg  was 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  109 

a  Lieutenant  of  the  Gendarmes ;  and  a  certain 
Jacob,  Commissary  of  Police  for  the  Section 
of  La  Reunion,  a  very  careful  writer,  has 
pointed  out  that  while  thus  occupying  impor- 
tant positions  in  the  militia,  the  municipal 
bodies,  and  the  magistrates,  not  a  single  one 
figured  among  the  members  of  the  Commit- 
tee of  Public  Safety  or  of  the  Revolutionary 
Tribunal. 

"  There  was  only  one  exception  to  the  gen- 
eral good  behavior  of  the  Jews.  Eight  Jews 
were  implicated  in  an  act  of  theft  of  an  ag- 
gravated character.  Two  of  them  were  ac- 
tually guilty  and  expiated  their  crime,  one 
(a  native  of  London)  by  death,  the  other  by 
eighteen  years'  imprisonment.  But  on  the 
whole  the  conduct  of  the  Jews  during  the 
Revolution  was  irreproachable;  when  the 
country  was  in  danger  they  were  to  be  seen  in 
the  path  of  honor  and  of  military  glory,  shed- 
ding their  blood  in  the  legitimate  defense  of 
their  country's  frontiers  and  attracting  by 
their  bravery  the  admiration  even  of  their 


no      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

enemies.  When  tranquillity  was  restored 
they  were  the  first  to  devote  themselves  to  in- 
dustry, contributing  by  their  activity  toward 
the  effacement  of  the  sanguinary  period  and 
seeking  by  the  dignity  of  their  lives  to  over- 
come the  most  hostile  opinions." 

Even  Napoleon,  whose  marshals,  Soult, 
Ney,  and  Massena  (whose  real  name  was 
Manasseh)  were  Jews, — the  last  named  being 
one  of  Napoleon's  principal  generals  and  by 
him  surnamed  "  the  child  of  victory," — did 
not  regard  the  Jews  as  citizens  until  1806.  He 
then  declared :  "  The  Jews  are  not  in  the 
same  category  with  the  Christians.  We  have 
to  judge  them  by  the  political,  not  the  civil 
right,  for  they  are  no  citizens."  He  had, 
however,  the  earnest  desire  to  make  citizens 
of  them.  For  this  purpose  he  called  together 
a  number  of  Jewish  deputies  in  1806,  charg- 
ing them  to  state  and  explain  truly  the  ob- 
stacles, if  there  were  any,  to  Jewish  citizen- 
ship emanating  from  their  religion.  One  of 
the  questions  put  to  that  body  was :   "  Do  the 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  in 

Jews  born  in  France,  and  considered  by  the 
law  as  her  citizens,  regard  this  country  as 
theirs  even  so  far  as  to  be  obliged  to  defend 
her?"  They  solemnly  answered:  "People 
who  choose  for  themselves  a  Fatherland,  liv- 
ing therein  since  many  centuries,  and  who, 
even  under  oppressive  laws,  felt  such  an  at- 
tachment to  it  that  they  did  rather  forego  the 
enjoyment  of  civil  liberties  than  quit  it, — such 
cannot  but  think  themselves  Frenchmen  in 
France,  and  the  obligation  to  defend  her  is  to 
them  an  honorable  and  a  precious  one. 

"  Love  of  country  is  such  a  natural  and  pro- 
found sentiment  among  the  Jews,  and  so  cor- 
respondent to  their  religious  belief,  that  a 
French  Jew  would  think  himself  a  stranger  in 
English  territory,  even  in  his  intercourse  with 
coreligionists,  the  same  being  true  of  English 
Jews  in  France. 

"  This  sentiment  prevails  among  them  in 
such  a  measure  that  in  the  late  wars  one  could 
frequently  see  French  Jews  fight  with  fierce 
animosity  against  the  Jews  in  the  hostile 


ii2      THE   JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

ranks.  Many  of  them  are  now  beset  with 
scars  as  the  glorious  marks  of  their  patriotic 
devotion,  and  others  have  been  praised  and 
distinguished  for  their  bravery  on  the  field  of 
honor." 

The  French  records  for  the  same  periods 
are  not  wanting  in  picturesque  elements. 
Jean  Louis  May  and  Simon  Mayer,  who  both 
took  part  in  Napoleon's  Sanhedrin,  served  in 
the  earlier  campaigns.  The  former  received 
the  Legion  of  Honor,  and  the  latter  became 
an  inspector  of  the  conscript  elections.  In 
1808,  Napoleon  had  797  Jews  in  his  army  of 
77,000  men.  This  is  a  large  proportion,  more 
than  ten  in  a  thousand.  But  the  French 
record  is  exceptionally  good  for  1821 ;  a  Jew, 
Baron  Woolf,  held  the  rank  of  general.  The 
records  of  twenty-four  French-Jewish  officers 
who  served  in  the  Crimean  campaign  are 
given  in  an  interesting  German  work,  "  The 
Jews  as  Soldiers.''  Fourteen  of  them  received 
different  grades  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  one 
being  decorated  by  Napoleon  in  prison. 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  113 

THE  DREYFUS  AFFAIR 

The  vile  men,  who  concocted  the  odius  con- 
spiracy against  Dreyfus,  could  find  no  fault  in 
this  patriot,  except  that  he  was  a  Jew,  and, 
therefore,  certain  to  be  condemned  without 
evidence;  and  the  more  they  lied,  perjured, 
and  forged,  the  more  they  convinced  the 
World  of  the  absolute  innocence  of  Dreyfus. 

The  thousands  marching  down  the  streets 
of  Paris  screaming,  "  Down  with  the  Jews!  " 
scattering  handbills  all  over  the  city  cursing 
the  Jew,  asking  the  people  to  buy  nothing  of 
a  Jew — and  why?  The  Jews,  though  number- 
ing only  80,000  in  all  France,  have  come  to 
the  top  in  many  professions;  they  possess 
more  wealth  than  their  Non-Jewish  neighbors, 
drive  the  best  horses,  and  inhabit  the  most 
splendid  mansions.  This  is  at  the  bottom  of 
the  present  Anti-Semitic  agitation  in  France, 
and,  stirring  at  the  bottom,  behind  the  army, 
are  the  clergy,  who  caused  this  outbreak  of 
barbarous  ferocity  in  a   supposed   civilized 


114      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

community.  The  Jew  is  persecuted  in  France, 
simply  because  he  is  a  Jew. 

Dreyfus,  according  to  the  provision  of  the 
French  army  law,  was  assigned  for  duty  on 
the  general  staff,  because  he  displayed  th~e 
greatest  proficiency  during  his  course  of 
study  at  the  Military  College.  Dreyfus  was 
the  first  Jew  so  honored,  but  not  the  first 
Jewish  officer  in  the  French  army.  In  1895 
there  were  in  the  active  army  9  colonels, 
9  lieutenant-colonels,  46  majors,  90  captains, 
89  lieutenants,  and  104  sub-lieutenants,  who 
were  Jews.  This  is  just  ten  times  as  many  as 
the  proportion  between  Jewish  and  Gentile 
Frenchmen  would  show  to  be  owing  to  their 
country.  Among  the  Jewish  generals  in  the 
French  army  may  be  named  Generals  See, 
Brisac,  Lambert,  Alsares,  Abraham,  Fri- 
bourg,  and  the  present  General  of  Brigade 
and  President  of  the  Committee  of  Experts 
on  Firing  at  Versailles,  Samuel  Paul  Naquet- 
Loroque.  During  the  past  year  or  so  some 
interesting  military   appointments   affecting 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS  IN   EUROPE  115 

Jews  have  been  gazetted.  M.  Dulaurens,  chief 
of  a  squadron  of  artillery,  has  been  appointed 
chief  of  the  staff  of  the  governor  of  Toul ;  M. 
Achille  See,  chief  of  a  squadron  on  the  retired 
list,  government  commissary  at  the  court- 
martial  in  Amiens,  has  been  given  a  similar 
post  at  the  second  court-martial  of  Paris; 
and  First  Lieutenant  Raymond  Weill,  of 
the  Fifth  Regiment  of  Engineers  at  Ver- 
sailles, has  been  promoted  captain  of  en- 
gineers at  Brest.  M.  Abraham  Bergel,  a  mer- 
chant of  Marseilles,  has  been  appointed  com- 
mander of  the  Spanish  Order  of  Isabella  the 
Catholic.  The  grade  of  commander  in  the 
Legion  of  Honor  has  been  conferred  on 
M.  Arthur  Thiel,  commissioner-general  for 
Sweden  at  the  Paris  Exhibition. 

A  writer  in  Pearson's  Weekly,  describes  an 
excited  Anti-Semitic  demonstration  which 
took  place  in  Paris  as  an  outcome  of  the 
Dreyfus  affair,  when  a  corporal  was  seen 
coming  in  their  direction.  Before  he  could 
pass  them  by  he  was  seized  and,  with  cries  of 


u6      THE   JEW  AS   A   PATRIOT 

"  Long  live  the  Army!  "  raised  him  shoulder- 
high,  and,  with  further  cries  for  the  army  and 
vociferations  against  the  Jews,  carried  him 
to  the  end  of  the  thoroughfare.  Here,  it  was 
suddenly  discovered  that  the  corporal  himself 
was  a  Jew,  and  the  disgusted  Anti-Semites 
placed  him  upon  his  legs  and  left  him  as 
quickly  as  they  could. 

BLUE-BLOODED  JEWS 

French  hostilities  against  the  Jews  will 
never  take  foothold  among  the  nobility.  The 
masses,  united  by  the  greed  for  wealth,  may 
display  a  craze  for  annihilating  the  Jewish 
people;  but  in  the  veins  of  the  nobility  of 
France  flows  a  goodly  portion  of  Jewish 
blood.  In  fact,  aristocracy  all  over  the  world 
has  Hebrew  affiliation.  The  International  has 
published  some  very  interesting  facts  on  this 
subject: 

"  The  first  Hebrew  to  be  ennobled  in  France 
was  a  man  named  Simon  Marchault,  who  re- 
ceived an  hereditary  title  from  the  Valois  King 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  117 

Charles  VI.  To-day  there  is  scarcely  a  single 
family  of  the  old  French  aristocracy,  either  in 
the  Faubourg  St.  Germain  at  Paris  or  in  the 
provinces,  which  does  not  include  members  of 
the  predestined  race  among  its  more  or  less 
remote  ancestors.  Indeed,  many  of  the  bear- 
ers of  the  grandest  and  most  illustrious  names 
in  France  have  either  Jewish  mothers  or 
wives.  The  Duke  of  Gramont  is  married  to 
the  daughter  of  one  of  the  Frankfort  Roths- 
childs, the  Prince  de  Wagram  to  another, 
while  the  Duke  of  Richelieu's  mother  is  a 
daughter  of  the  Hebrew  banker  Michael 
Heine,  of  New  Orleans  and  Paris.  The  Duke 
of  Levis-Mirepoix  claims  to  be  able  to  trace 
his  genealogical  descent  in  direct  line  from 
the  founder  of  the  Jewish  tribe  of  Levi,  and 
among  his  family  pictures  there  is  one  repre- 
senting the  Virgin  Mary  in  the  act  of  ad- 
dressing a  former  Duke  of  Levis-Mirepoix 
with  the  words:  '  Pray  put  your  hat  on, 
cousin.'  The  late  Marquis  de  Mores,  the  heir 
of  the  Duke  of  Vallambrosa,  was  married  to 


n8      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

the  daughter  of  a  German  Israelite  banker  es- 
tablished in  New  York,  and  was  dependent 
on  his  father-in-law's  shekels  for  his  mainte- 
nance. The  Duchess  de  Rivoli  is  a  daughter 
of  the  Hebrew  banker  Charles  Heine,  and 
the  adopted  child  of  the  well-known  Jewish 
philanthropist,  the  late  Mme.  Furtardo,  of 
Paris.  The  Princes  Poniatowski  are  the 
grandchildren  of  a  Jewess  named  Zoe  Mos- 
selman,  who,  as  Comtesse  Le  Hon,  acquired 
much  notoriety  of  a  disagreeable  character  at 
Paris  during  the  early  days  of  the  third 
Napoleon's  reign.  The  grand  old  ducal  house 
of  Polignac  has  likewise  among  its  members 
an  Israelite  in  the  person  of  Princess  Alp- 
house  de  Polignac,  who  was  the  daughter  of 
the  Hebrew  financier  Mires.  The  latter,  it 
may  be  remembered,  played  an  important  role 
under  Napoleon  III. 

"In  the  same  way  the  ducal  house  of 
Noailles,  which  dates  back  to  the  first  cru- 
sades, included  among  its  most  popular  mem- 
bers the  younger  daughter  of  a  Hebrew  liquor 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS  IN   EUROPE  119 

dealer  of  Moscow,  Lachmann  by  name.  In 
1868  she  married  the  Marquis  de  Noailles, 
now  French  ambassador  at  Berlin,  and 
brother  of  the  late  duke,  and  before  her  death 
she  figured  with  much  brilliancy  and  eclat  as 
French  ambassadress  at  Washington,  Con- 
stantinople, and  Rome. 

"  The  heir  and  younger  brother  of  the  fat 
and  good-humored  Duke  of  Massa  is  wedded 
to  a  Jewish  lady  of  the  name  of  Coppens,  who 
is  as  much  famed  for  the  beauty  of  her  voice 
as  her  husband  for  his  talent  as  a  dramatist. 
The  young  Duchess  de  Maille  is  of  Hebrew 
descent,  as  is  also  the  enormously  wealthy 
Comte  de  Creffulhe,  who  is  married  to  the 
charming  Princess  de  Chimay,  so  noted  at 
Paris  for  her  Wagnerian  enthusiasm.  The 
Duchess  of  Fitz-James,  whose  husband  like- 
wise bears  the  titles  of  Duke  of  Berwick  and 
Duke  of  Liria — and  who  is  descended  from 
the  illegitimate  son  of  King  James  II.  of  Eng- 
land and  of  Arabella  Churchill,  sister  of  the 
first  Duke  of  Marlborough — is  of  Hebrew 


120      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

parentage.  So,  too,  is  the  mother  of  the 
present  little  Duke  of  Decazes,  who  married 
one  of  the  daughters  of  Mr.  Singer  of  sewing- 
machine  fame. 

"  The  young  Duke  of  Brissac  is  the  son  of  a 
lady  of  Hebrew  parentage  who  now  bears 
the  name  of  Vicomtesse  de  Tredern.  The 
viscountess  is  famous  not  only  as  possessing 
the  finest  amateur  contralto  voice  in  Paris, 
but  also  in  connection  with  the  valuable  sup- 
port which  she  gave  to  General  Boulanger. 
Her  sister  is  the  wife  of  the  oldest  son  and 
heir  of  the  Duke  of  Broglie. 

u  The  Duchess  de  Castries,  sister-in-law  of 
the  late  Marshal  MacMahon,  and  who,  since 
the  death  of  her  first  husband,  has  married 
Viscount  Emmanuel  d'Harcourt,  a  member 
of  the  ducal  house  of  that  name,  is  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  enormously  wealthy  Austro-Jewish 
banker,  Baron  Sina." 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  121 

THE  JEWS  OF  ENGLAND 

On  the  31st  of  August,  1290,  Edward  I. 
banished  all  the  Jews,  numbering  16,511, 
from  England;  they  were  pitilessly  driven 
from  a  country  inhabited  by  their  ances- 
tors as  far  back  as  the  eighth  century. 
You  could  hardly  expect  them  to  love 
England;  and  yet  no  sooner  had  favor- 
able legislation  restored  them  to  citizenship 
than  they  proved  their  love  of  country.  The 
complete  emancipation  of  the  Jews  in  Eng- 
land was  not  brought  about  until  1858,  when 
Parliament  resolved  to  admit  Jews  without 
the  obligation  to  subscribe  the  oath  "  on  the 
faith  of  a  true  Christian."  Then  their  practical 
persecution  was  ended.  For,  as  Macaulay 
said,  "  Persecution  it  is  to  inflict  penalties  on 
account  of  religious  opinions."  Down  to  this 
time,  many  eminent  lawyers  and  judges 
doubted  whether  a  Jew  could  lawfully  hold 
real  estate  in  England.  Forty-two  years  have 
elapsed  since  the  English  Jews  were  fully 


122      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

emancipated.  Macaulay,  champion  of  hu- 
manity, who  did  so  much  to  remove  their  dis- 
abilities, declared  it  was  unfair  "  till  we  have 
tried  the  experiment,  whether  by  making 
Englishmen  of  them  they  will  not  become 
members  of  the  community." 

The  Jewish  race  has  produced  a  major- 
general,  Albert  Goldsmid,  who  had  two 
horses  shot  under  him  at  Waterloo,  and  two 
lieutenant-generals,  Sir  Jacob  Adolphus  and 
Sir  David  Ximines,  while  Sir  Alexander 
Shornberg  distinguished  himself  in  the  British 
navy.  More  than  nine  hundred  Jews  have 
taken  part  in  the  Boer  campaign,  and  in  pro- 
portion to  their  number  in  the  empire  they 
have  borne  much  more  than  their  share  in 
their  contribution  to  the  fighting  forces  in  the 
present  war  with  the  Boers.  Major-General 
Sir  William  Penn  Symons,  killed  in  the  South 
African  war,  was  by  descent  and  faith  a  Jew, 
and  named  after  a  Quaker. 

Colonel  A.  E.  W.  Goldsmid,  chief  of 
staff    to    General    Kelly-Kenny    at    Alder- 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS  IN   EUROPE  123 

shot,  and  of  the  Sixth  Division  under  the 
same  general,  which  cornered  Cronje  at  Paar- 
deburg,  where  two  shots  wounded  his  horse, 
a  third  smashed  his  water-bottle,  and  a  fourth 
penetrated  into  his  saddlebag,  and  after  or- 
ganizing transport  columns  became  comman- 
dant at  Naaupoort,  and  later  on  Inspector  of 
the  Western  Section  of  the  Lines  of  Commu- 
nication, is  a  Jew ;  Colonel  Harris,  who  com- 
manded that  regiment  of  crack  shots,  the 
Kimberley  Rifles,  is  also  a  Jew.  Lieutenant 
F.  N.  Raphael,  of  the  First  South  Lancashire 
Regiment,  killed  at  Spion  Kop,  while  trying  to 
rescue  one  of  his  own  men,  a  private  soldier, 
who  had  been  badly  wounded,  was  likewise  a 
Jew.  Major  W.  D.  Karri-Davis,  of  the  Im- 
perial Light  Horse,  and  his  partner,  Woods 
W.  Samson,  both  Jews,  were  kept  in  jail  by 
the  Boer  authorities  for  a  long  time  because 
they  refused  to  give  their  parole  not  to  fight ; 
and  when  they  finally  got  into  the  fighting 
ranks,  at  their  own  expense  raised  and 
equipped  the  Imperial  Light  Horse.     Karri- 


124      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

Davis  was  badly  wounded  at  Ladysmith,  and 
seven  other  Jews  fighting  with  him  were 
killed  there.  He  was  one  of  the  first  to  enter 
Johannesburg,  and  the  first  to  ride  into  Mafe- 
king.  Have  you  not  read  the  thrilling  story 
of  Lieutenant  Give  Behrens,  who,  just  after 
his  marriage  to  Evelina  Rothschild,  went  to 
the  front  with  his  corps,  the  Royal  Horse  Ar- 
tillery? Mrs.  Behrens  is  the  only  daughter 
of  Lord  Rothschild,  head  of  the  great  house 
of  bankers,  director  of  wealth  estimated  at 
two  billions;  but,  with  no  thought  of  the 
power  of  her  fortune,  Mrs.  Behrens  made  no 
attempt  to  protect  her  husband  with  her  mil- 
lions from  the  bullets  of  the  Boers,  and  made 
herself  a  sister  in  self-sacrifice  and  suspense 
to  the  wife  of  the  poor  private  of  the  British 
army. 

Alfred  Brown  (ex-captain  in  the  First 
Royal  Fusiliers  Volunteers  and  brigade  sig- 
nalling officer  in  General  Trotter's  staff),  who 
was  residing  in  Johannesburg  at  the  outbreak 
of  hostilities,  joined  Thorneycroft's  Mounted 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  125 

Infantry.  Captain  Brown  was  wounded  in  the 
first  engagement  on  the  Mooi  River,  and  re- 
joined his  regiment  after  recovery.  A  recur- 
rence of  the  lameness  necessitated  a  further 
rest,  however,  and  on  recovery  again  Captain 
Brown  once  more  presented  himself  at  the 
front.  The  commanding  officer  would  not 
sanction  his  rejoining  till  his  health  was  fully 
restored.  Major  Karri-Davis  (who,  though 
an  Australian,  has  long  been  a  resident  in  the 
Transvaal)  had  conferred  on  him  by  the  King 
the  decoration  of  Companion  of  the  Order  of 
the  Bath,  and  that  of  Companion  of  the  Order 
of  St.  Michael  and  St.  George  on  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  David  Harris,  V.D.,  of  the  Kimber- 
ley  Town  Guard.  Both  officers  were  men- 
tioned in  Lord  Roberts'  despatches  as  deserv- 
ing recognition  for  their  services  in  connec- 
tion with  the  war.  Captain  J.  W.  Cohen,  of 
the  Thirteenth  Middlesex  Volunteer  Rifles, 
equipped  by  him  and  his  father  at  their  ex- 
pense; Captain  E.  C.  Arnold,  Seventh  Bat- 
talion Royal  Fusiliers,  who  on  the  outbreak 


126      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

of  war  volunteered  for  service,  and  who  has 
been  commanding  the  Details  of  the  Middle- 
sex Regiment  at  Woolwich,  Acting- Adjutant 
of  the  new  Third  and  Fourth  Battalions  of 
the  Middlesex  Regiment;  Captain  Robinson 
and  Captain  Barrett  of  the  Welsh  Yeomanry ; 
Captain  Frielander,  of  Kitchener's  Fighting 
Scouts;  Sergeant  Alfred  A.  Asher,  Sergeant 
Michael  Asher,  and  Private  Henry  Asher,  who 
have  the  unique  distinction  of  being  the  only 
three  brothers  (Jews)  serving  in  one  regi- 
ment, viz.,  the  Middlesex  Yeomanry;  Major 
S.  Weil,  Imperial  Transport  Service,  men- 
tioned for  meritorious  service  in  Lord 
Roberts'  "  honors  despatch  " ;  Captain  E.  S. 
D.  Goldschmidt,  Lieutenant-Colonel  F.  P. 
Lousada,  and  Captain  Claude  L.  Marks,  are 
only  a  few  of  the  twenty-two  captains,  forty 
lieutenants,  sixty-two  second  lieutenants,  be- 
sides medical  officers  nurses,  and  900  pri- 
vates in  England's  South  African  War. 

Perhaps  no  more  striking  testimony  to  the 
prominent  part,  borne  in  the  war,  not  only  by 


JEWS  AS  SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  127 

English  and  South  African  Jews,  but  by  their 
brethren  in  all  parts  of  the  empire,  may  be 
gathered  from  the  jest  generally  current  in 
New  South  Wales,  where  the  contingent  of 
fighting  men  sent  to  the  front  are  humorously 
referred  to  as  Cohentin gents.  The  Jews  all 
over  the  empire  arose  one  in  heart  and  in- 
terest with  the  Imperial  people,  among  whom 
their  lot  was  cast,  indistinguishable  in  aims 
and  character  from  the  race,  with  whom  their 
fortunes  were  united;  and  by  sharing  with 
England's  bravest  and  best  the  danger  and 
the  glory  of  war,  they  triumphantly  repu- 
diated the  charge  that  the  Jews  "  cannot  be 
patriots  while  they  remain  genuine  Jews." 

"  For  the  Jew  has  heart  and  hand, 
O  Mother  England, 
And  they  both  are  thine  to-day — 
Thine  for  life  and  thine  for  death,  yea,  for  ever! 
Wilt  thou  take  them  as  we  give  them,  freely,  gladly, 
England?  say!  " 

And  yet  such  is  the  ignorance  of  the 
patriotism  of  the  Jew,  that  while  hundreds  of 
Jews  in  England  and  the  Colonies  were  mak- 


128      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

ing  contributions  to  the  national  defense, 
and  volunteering  for  and  dying  in  South 
Africa  in  defense  of  the  Fatherland,  even 
while  all  this  was  going  on,  about  six  months 
ago,  a  well-known  Englishman,  supporting 
the  action  of  the  mobs  in  attacking  the  Jews 
in  Whitechapel,  had  this  to  say :  "  Race 
riots  are  deplorable,  but  there  is  undoubtedly 
cause  for  feeling  against  the  Jews  just  at  this 
period  of  England's  trials. 

"  The  Jews  make  money  here  in  London. 
They  share  our  prosperity  and  do  not  share 
our  dangers.  A  Jew  will  cheerfully  take  a 
contract  to  supply  the  British  army  in  Africa 
at  a  profit.  What  Jew  would  take  up  a  gun  or 
a  sword  on  behalf  of  the  nation  that  shelters 
him?  What  Jew  has  figured  in  England's 
wars?  " 

One  would  think  that  the  facts  mentioned, 
which  speak  volumes  for  the  patriotism  of 
the  Jew,  and  serve  as  an  object  lesson  to  the 
world  of  the  success,  which  waits  upon  a 
policy  of  wise  toleration  and  justice,  would 


JEWS  AS   SOLDIERS   IN   EUROPE  129 

make  such  Anti-Semites  blush,  if  shame  were 
not  dead. 

The  eight  millions  of  Jews  in  Europe  fur- 
nish about  350,000  men  to  the  war  strength 
of  European  armies;  that  is  to  say,  the  pro- 
portion of  Jews  among  the  soldiers  of  Europe 
is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  race. 


The    Jew    in    Politics 

In  the  Nineteenth  Century 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS 

IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY 

Even  in  Anti-Semitic  Germany,  we  find  the 
Jew  in  politics  takes  front  rank.  Ferdinand 
Lassalle,  the  founder  of  the  German  Social 
Democracy,  the  darling  of  the  German  work- 
ing classes,  jurist,  economist,  orator,  philos- 
opher and  poet,  made  Socialism  a  force  in 
European  politics;  and  when  he  died  in  a 
duel  in  1863,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight,  Bis- 
marck and  he  were  considered  the  two  fore- 
most men  of  the  Fatherland. 

Edward  Lasker,  another  idol  of  the  Ger- 
man working  people,  was  born  in  Jarocin,  in 
Posen,  Prussian  Poland,  October  14,  1829. 
He  became  known  as  a  statesman  by  his 
133 


134      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

work  on  the  constitutional  history  of  Prussia, 
as  a  member  of  the  Prussian  Chamber,  and 
subsequently  of  the  North  German  and  Ger- 
man Imperial  Parliament.  He  was  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  National  Liberal  Party, 
although  on  more  than  one  occasion  he  voted 
with  the  Progressive  Party.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  his  political  party  just  so  long  as  it  up- 
held justice.  He  was  a  prompter  of  the  union 
of  the  Southern  and  Northern  States  of  Ger- 
many. He  was  for  years  the  acknowledged 
leader  in  the  Reichstag.  He  was  for  a  long 
time  a  powerful  supporter  of  Bismarck,  until 
the  latter's  administration  introduced  a  bill 
which  aimed  to  limit  the  freedom  of  speech  in 
Parliament.  Thenceforth  Lasker  became 
Bismarck's  decided  antagonist. 

In  1848  Herr  J.  Mannheimer  was  elected 
to  the  Presidency  of  the  Austrian  Diet.  The 
famous  Gabriel  Riesser,  the  same  year,  was 
elected  Minister  of  State  to  the  Prince  Pro- 
tector of  Germany,  John  of  Austria. 

Ludwig    Bamberger,    for    many    years    a 


THE   JEW   IN   POLITICS  135 

member  of  the  Reichstag,  and  author  of  a 
number  of  works  on  history  and  political 
economy,  was  one  of  the  makers  of  modern 
Germany.  He  was,  at  one  time,  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  National  Liberal  Party  and  an 
adversary  of  the  late  Prince  Bismarck.  In 
the  revolution  of  1848,  he  became  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  popular  movement,  and  took 
an  active  part  in  the  insurrection  of  1849, tne 
object  of  which  was  the  establishment  of 
a  constitutional  government  for  Rhenish 
Bavaria.  He  eventually  sought  refuge  in 
Switzerland,  and,  during  his  absence,  he  was 
sentenced  to  death  by  the  Bavarian  Assizes. 
Establishing  himself  in  Paris,  he  was  engaged 
in  the  banking  business  from  1853  to  1867* 
He  returned  to  his  native  town  after  the 
amnesty  decree  which  followed  the  Austro- 
Prussian  war  of  1866,  permitted  him  to  do  so, 
and  was  elected  to  the  Reichstag  in  1871.  At 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  between  France  and 
Prussia,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  defense  of 
German  national  interests,  and,  on  account  of 


136      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

his  ability  as  a  journalist  and  long  familiarity 
with  the  affairs  of  France,  he  was  assigned  by 
Prince  Bismarck  to  the  general  staff  and  later 
to  the  staff  of  the  Governor  of  Alsace,  in 
order  to  assist  the  latter  in  the  political  ad- 
ministration of  that  province. 

In  the  Reichstag,  Herr  Bamberger  became 
one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  National  Liberal  Party 
and  assumed  an  important  place  as  a  financial 
orator.  Later  he  distinguished  himself  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Progressive  Party  as  one  of  the 
adversaries  of  Bismarck. 

Dr.  Wilhelm  Cahn,  Privy  Councilor  of 
Legation,  was  recently,  at  his  own  request, 
relieved  of  his  post  as  one  of  the  legal  advisers 
of  the  Ministry  for  Foreign  Affairs.  He  was 
the  only  Jew  in  the  Imperial  Chancellery,  and 
was  publicly  commended  by  Bismarck  for 
having  refused  to  abjure  his  religion  in  order 
to  gain  advancement.  At  the  time  of  the  out- 
break of  the  Franco-German  War,  Dr.  Cahn 
was  in  Paris  as  Councilor  of  the  Bavarian 
Legation ;  he  remained  there  throughout  the 


THE  JEW  IN   POLITICS         13; 

war,  under  the  protection  of  the  Swiss  Lega- 
tion, and  he  did  not  leave  his  post  even  in  the 
terrible  days  of  the  Commune. 

Max  Hirsch,  Anton  Ree,  Ludwig  Lowe, 
Leopold  Sonneman,  Max  Kayser,  and  E. 
Singer  have  fearlessly  expressed  their  opin- 
ions in  the  German  Reichstag. 

Moses  Godefroi,  the  Dutch  advocate,  in 
i860  was  appointed  Minister  of  Justice  by  the 
King  of  Holland. 

A  Jew,  who  has  had  much  influence  on  the 
educational  progress  of  Denmark,  is  Herman 
Trier,  who  was  recently  chosen  to  the  office 
of  Speaker  of  the  Danish  House  of  Commons. 
His  parents  were  of  German  descent,  but  he 
himself  is  thoroughly  Danish.  He  is  a  warm 
advocate  of  wood-working  as  a  part  of  the 
curriculum,  and  it  was  through  his  efforts  that 
this  important  mechanical  study  has  become 
part  of  the  programme  of  most  of  the  Boys' 
Schools  in  Denmark. 

The  Sultan  has  recently  promoted  to  the 
grade  of  General  of  Division  Vice-Admiral, 


138      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

Dr.  Isaac  Molho  Pasha,  Sanitary  Inspector  of 
the  Imperial  Navy.  Dr.  Pasha  is  a  brother  of 
Daoud  Effendi  Molho,  First  Dragoman  of 
the  Imperial  Palace. 

The  King  of  Greece  has  conferred  the  in- 
signia of  the  Saviour  on  Robert  Effendi  Mis- 
rahi,  Director  of  Political  Affairs  for  the 
Vilayet  and  Department  of  Adrianople.  In 
the  discharge  of  his  delicate  functions,  Robert 
Effendi  Misrahi  has  displayed  a  far-seeing 
mind,  quick  to  grasp  the  most  complicated 
questions,  which  excellent  qualities  have 
gained  for  him  repeated  marks  of  Imperial 
favor,  as  well  as  decorations  from  several 
foreign  governments. 

JEWS   IN   ITALIAN   POLITICS 

It  is  not  much  more  than  sixty-seven  years 
since  the  Jews  were  permitted  any  liberties  in 
Italy.  Yet  under  the  most  adverse  circum- 
stances, Isaac  Pesaro  Maurogonato  became 
"  an  athlete  in  parliamentary  debate/'  He 
was   born   in   Venice,    November    15,    181 7. 


THE   JEW   IN   POLITICS         139 

After  having  achieved  great  success  as  a 
lawyer  he  turned  his  attention  to  politics. 
In  1848  he  became  Postmaster-General  of 
Venice,  and  in  1849,  Minister  of  Finance  and 
Commerce.  In  the  discharge  of  his  duties  in 
the  latter  office  his  business  qualities  were  so 
conspicuously  manifested  that  after  the  fall  of 
the  Provisional  Government  and  the  return 
of  the  Austrians  to  Venice,  one  of  the  authori- 
ties, rinding  the  office  so  skillfully  conducted, 
and  every  payment  carefully  accounted  for, 
exclaimed :  "  I  never  would  have  thought 
that  these  republican  rebels  could  be  so 
honest."  When  Venice  became  a  part  of  the 
kingdom  of  Italy,  in  i860,  Maurogonato  was 
elected  a  deputy  to  Parliament,  a  position 
which  he  rilled  so  agreeably  that  for  many 
years  he  ranked  among  the  life-senators  of 
his  native  country.  In  this  connection,  we 
must  mention  Dr.  Manin  (1804-57),  tne 
Italian  patriot  and  defender  of  Venice. 

Only  since  the  establishment  of  the  King- 
dom under  Victor  Emmanuel  II.  have  Italian- 


140      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

born  Jews  enjoyed  equal  civil  and  political 
rights  with  their  fellow  countrymen.  Yet  the 
people  who  were  considered  the  lowest  have 
by  their  talents  and  character  reached  with 
astounding  rapidity  the  highest  round  in  the 
ladder  of  political  fame. 

The  brilliant  services  of  Signor  Luigi  Luz- 
zatti,  in  more  than  one  Cabinet  of  recent 
years,  have  not  been  forgotten.  When  polit- 
ical events  caused  a  change  of  government, 
the  first  ministry  formed  in  the  reign  of  King 
Victor  Emmanuel,  contained  another  Jew, 
Signor  Leone  Wollemborg,  who  was  given 
the  office  of  Minister  of  Finance,  a  post  for 
which  he  was  well  fitted  by  his  past  expe- 
rience, acquired  while  Under-Secretary  of 
State  for  the  Treasury  in  the  Sirocco  Minis- 
try. Signor  Wollemborg,  who  is  of  German 
extraction,  was  born  at  Padua  in  1859,  and 
took  his  degree  in  Laws  in  1878.  He  has  sat 
in  three  Parliaments  as  member  for  Cit- 
tadella,  and  is  extremely  popular  among  the 
working   classes,   having  been,   like   Signor 


THE  JEW   IN    POLITICS  141 

Luzzatti,  one  of  the  earliest  advocates  of  co- 
operative societies.  After  holding  this  port- 
folio for  a  few  months,  Signor  Wollemborg 
resigned,  when  insurmountable  difficulties 
presented  themselves  to  his  wide-reaching 
scheme  for  the  reform  of  taxation.  Some  of 
his  colleagues  in  the  cabinet  were  opposed 
to  his  plan,  and  when  Signor  Wollemborg 
saw  that  his  scheme  could  not  be  realized, 
rather  than  agree  to  the  objections  of  his  fel- 
low ministers  he  laid  down  the  reins  of  office. 
Cavaliere  de  Polacco,  Councilor  to  the 
Italian  Embassy  in  Paris,  has  recently  been 
appointed  Minister  Plenipotentiary  for  Italy 
in  Bulgaria.  Many  years  ago,  Italy  set  the 
example  of  giving  posts  to  Jews  in  the  dip- 
lomatic service,  when  it  appointed  the  late 
Signor  Isacco  Artour  as  Minister  to  Den- 
mark. Within  recent  years,  another  Jew,  Sig- 
nor Segre,  has  been  Italian  Minister  at  Lima 
(Peru).  Count  Hierschel  di  Minerbi,  who 
was  until  a  year  or  two  ago  Councilor  of  the 
Italian  Etnbassy  in  London,  more  than  once 


142      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

discharged  the  functions  of  Ambassador  dur- 
ing the  absence  of  his  chief  from  England. 

One  of  the  most  illustrious  careers  in 
Italian  politics  came  to  a  close  at  Rome  a 
short  time  since,  by  the  death  of  Senator 
Artom.  In  1855  ne  received  an  appointment 
at  the  Ministry  for  Foreign  Affairs.  The 
famous  statesman,  Count  Cavour,  recognized 
his  profound  genius;  and,  in  1858,  he  ap- 
pointed Artom  to  his  private  Cabinet.  He  was 
successively  Secretary  of  Legation  at  Paris, 
Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  Copenhagen,  and 
Chief  of  the  Private  Cabinet  of  the  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  Count  Giuseppe  Pasolini. 
In  1865,  Artom  was  sent  to  Paris  as  Italian 
Plenipotentiary  at  the  Monetary  Conference ; 
and,  in  1866,  he,  together  with  General  Mena- 
brea,  took  part  in  the  peace  negotiations  at 
Vienna.  He  visited  Vienna  again  in  1870, 
on  a  diplomatic  mission;  and,  in  the  same 
year,  he  was  appointed  by  the  Marquis  Vis- 
cinti  Venosta  to  the  responsible  post  of  Gen- 
eral Secretary  at  the  Ministry  for  Foreign 


THE   JEW   IN   POLITICS         143 

Affairs,  a  post  subsequently  held  by  another 
Jew,  Signor  Giacomo  Malvano.  He  con- 
tinued in  this  office  until  1876,  in  which 
year  he  was  created  a  Senator  of  the  King- 
dom. Signor  Artom  soon  became  one  of  the 
principal  authorities  in  that  branch  of  the 
Legislature  on  finance  and  foreign  politics, 
and  his  abilities  were  recognized  by  his  elec- 
tion to  important  offices  in  the  Senate.  It  is 
needless  to  multiply  instances;  in  municipal 
and  national  affairs,  the  Jews  are  everywhere 
recognized  as  among  the  first  citizens  of  the 
kingdom. 

THE  JEWS  IN  FRENCH  POLITICS 

France  was  the  first  of  all  countries  to 
grant  to  the  Jews  civil  and  political  rights  at 
the  time  of  the  great  revolution  in  1793.  The 
Jewish  religion  is  one  of  the  three  religions 
recognized  in  France  and  supported  by  the 
State,  being  on  the  same  footing  with 
Catholicism  and  Protestantism.  Since  1793, 
Jews  in  France  are  both  electors  and  eligi- 


144      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

bles,  and  no  office  whatever  has  been  closed 
to  them.  In  the  forties  there  was  a  Jewish 
Minister  of  Finance,  the  famous  Goudchaux. 
Even  so  learned  a  man  of  affairs  as  Arch- 
bishop Ireland,  at  the  time  of  the  Dreyfus 
affair,  was  quoted  in  an  interview  as  saying 
that  all  French  Hebrews  are  recent  immi- 
grants in  France.  Bordeaux,  Avignon,  and 
Nimes  have  had  Jewish  communities  for  cen- 
turies ;  and  many  of  the  Jews  of  France  are  of 
better  French  stock  than  some  of  the  great 
families,  which  have  played  a  prominent  part 
in  history,  like  the  De  Broglies,  who  came 
from  Piedmont;  the  MacMahons,  who  were 
Irish ;  like  the  people  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  who 
belonged  to  France  only  since  1648,  and  like 
Bonaparte,  or  Buonaparte,  the  name  of  the 
family  which  has  given  to  modern  France  its 
imperial  dynasty,  who  were  Italians. 

There  died  in  Paris,  about  two  years  ago, 
one  of  the  highest  Magistrates  of  the  Court 
of  Cassation,  M.  Bedavrides,  a  Jew  whose  an- 
cestry could  be  traced  back  to  an  old  family 


THE   JEW   IN   POLITICS  145 

of  Provence.  Until  Drumont  published  his 
violent  book,  in  1886,  there  was  no  Jew-bait- 
ing worth  mentioning  in  France.  Only  once 
before  in  the  nineteenth  century  had  the 
Jews  been  attacked,  when  Toussenel,  in  1846, 
published  "  The  Jews  Kings  of  the  Century." 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  fact  how 
commonly  the  Jews  are  mixed  up  with  the 
names  of  the  old  nobility  in  France.  When 
French  nobles  have  been  unable  to  find 
American  heiresses,  who  were  fools  enough 
to  support  them,  they  have  married  rich 
Jewesses. 

After  the  war  of  1870,  Eugene  Manuel,  a 
distinguished  university  professor  and  a  Jew, 
proved  himself  next  to  Paul  Deroulede  as  a 
patriot  Tyrtaeus. 

In  politics,  the  Jews  in  France  have  been 
powerful  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  num- 
bers. There  are  only  80,000  Jews  in  France 
to-day,  and  it  is  simply  astonishing  how  many 
ministers  their  race  has  furnished  to  France. 

Isaac    Adolphe    Cremieux    (1796-1881), 


146      THE  JEW  AS   A   PATRIOT 

whose  eloquence  and  thorough  legal  knowl- 
edge soon  brought  him  to  public  notice,  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
in  1842.  He  encouraged  the  Revolution  of 
1848  and  advised  Louis  Philippe  to  quit 
France.  Under  the  Provisional  Government, 
he  held  the  important  office  of  Minister  of 
Justice.  After  the  surrender  of  Napoleon 
III.  at  Sedan,  he  again  became  Minister  of 
Justice.  His  own  donation  toward  the  pay- 
ment of  the  war  debt  to  Germany  was  one 
hundred  thousand  francs.  After  serving  faith- 
fully in  the  National  Assembly,  the  land  of 
his  birth  made  him  a  life-senator. 

Achille  Fould  (1800-67),  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Louis  Napoleon,  was  four  times 
Minister  of  Finance.  His  disagreement  with 
the  President  led  him  twice  to  retire  from 
office,  but  he  was  each  time  reappointed.  In 
1852,  he  was  made  Senator  and  Minister  of 
State,  and  was  created  a  Commander  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor.  The  great  ultra-liberal, 
Gambetta    (1838-1882),    was    of    Genoese- 


THE  JEW   IN   POLITICS  147 

Jewish  descent.  David  Reynal  of  Bordeaux 
became  Senator,  and,  under  Ferry  and  Cas- 
simir-Perier,  Minister  of  Public  Works  and 
Minister  of  the  Interior — the  real  ruler  of  the 
French  Republic,  ninety  years  after  the 
emancipation  of  the  Jews;  E.  B.  Millaud, 
Senator  and  Minister  of  Public  Works  under 
Goblet;  Jules  Simon,  Minister  of  Education 
and  Religion  under  Thiers;  Camille  See,  the 
successful  champion  of  female  education; 
Lockroy,  heir  and  relative  of  Victor  Hugo, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  during  a  recent  minis- 
try; M.  Naquet,  friend  and  adviser  of  Boulan- 
ger,  are  a  few  of  the  Jews,  who  have  distin- 
guished themselves  in  French  politics. 

ENGLISH  JEWS  IN  POLITICS 

The  first  gleam  of  hope  for  civil  and  relig- 
ious liberty  in  England  was  the  repeal  of  the 
Test  and  Corporation  Acts  in  1828.  This  first 
decisive  move  in  the  right  direction  was  re- 
ceived with  exultation  by  Roman  Catholics, 
Christian  dissenters,  and  British  Jews.     But 


148      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

the  clause  "  On  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian," 
appended  to  the  Oath  of  Abjuration,  a  clause 
intended  as  a  protection  against  any  mental 
reservation  on  the  part  of  Roman  Catholics 
to  jurisdiction  in  England,  although  not  in- 
tended to  affect  Jews,  Jew-baiters  used  this 
unintentional  clause  in  the  new  declaration 
as  a  bar  to  the  Jews'  admission  to  Parliament, 
to  offices  under  the  crown,  and  all  municipal 
and  corporation  offices.  Many  attempts  were 
made  to  relieve  the  Jews  from  the  political 
and  civil  disabilities  from  which  they  were 
then  suffering.  In  1835,  David  Salomons 
was  elected  Sheriff  of  London  and  Middlesex; 
and  to  enable  him  to  serve  the  office  without 
subscribing  to  the  declaration  "  On  the  true 
faith  of  a  Christian,"  a  bill  was  passed  entitled 
"The  Sheriff's  Declaration  Act."  In  the 
same  year,  Mr.  Salomons  was  elected  Alder- 
man of  the  Ward  of  Aldgate;  but,  being 
unable  to  take  the  Abjuration  Oath,  he  could 
not  accept  the  office,  which  was  declared 
vacant    and    a    Christian    elected.      Various 


THE  JEW   IN   POLITICS  149 

emancipation  bills  were  placed  before  Parlia- 
ment, but  failed  to  remove  the  disabilities 
which  then  affected  the  Jews  in  England,  so 
that  the  efforts  of  the  friends  of  equal  rights 
were  directed  toward  removing  the  disabili- 
ties gradually  by  successive  efforts.  In  1837 
Moses  Montefiore  was  elected  Sheriff  of  Lon- 
don and  Middlesex,  and  received  the  honor 
of  knighthood  from  Queen  Victoria  upon  her 
first  visit  to  London.  In  the  same  year  David 
Salomons  was  defeated  in  the  Borough  of 
Shoreham,  this  being  the  first  attempt  of  any 
Jew  to  enter  Parliament.  In  1844  David 
Salomons  was  for  the  second  time  elected  an 
alderman  for  the  City  of  London,  but  was 
again  prevented  from  accepting  the  office, 
because  he  could  not  subscribe  to  the  oath 
which  he  was  bound  to  take.  In  this  same 
year  British  Jews  were  relieved  from  the  ob- 
ligation to  subscribe  to  the  oath  "  On  the 
faith  of  a  true  Christian,"  upon  being  elected 
to  municipal  offices.  In  1846  Sir  Moses 
Montefiore  and  Baron  Anthony  de  Rothschild 


ISO      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

were  made  baronets  of  the  United  Kingdom 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  In  1847  Baron 
Lionel  de  Rothschild  was  sent  to  Parliament 
by  the  Liberal  electors  of  London,  but,  unable 
to  take  the  oath  "  On  the  faith  of  a  true  Chris- 
tian," he  was  not  permitted  to  take  his  seat. 
The  contrast  between  Parliament  and  the  peo- 
ple was  proven  by  Baron  Rothschild's  re-elec- 
tion for  the  City  of  London  in  the  years  1849, 
1852,  and  1857.  In  185 1  Alderman  Salomons 
was  returned  to  Parliament  as  a  member  for 
Greenwich.  He  insisted  on  taking  the  oath 
upon  the  Old  Testament,  and,  omitting  the 
declaration,  "  On  the  faith  of  a  true  Chris- 
tian," concluded  with  "  So  help  me  God!" 
He  took  his  seat,  voted, and  spoke  three  times 
on  the  very  question  of  his  right  to  remain  in 
the  House,  but  he  was  compelled  to  with- 
draw. An  action  was  brought  against  him  to 
recover  from  him  three  penalties  of  five  hun- 
dred pounds  for  sitting  and  speaking  three 
times  and  voting  in  three  divisions  in  the 
House  of  Commons  without  having  taken  the 


THE   JEW   IN    POLITICS  151 

oath.  The  affair  led  to  long  legal  proceedings 
before  the  Court  of  Exchequer.  In  1855  Mr. 
Salomons  was  elected  Lord  Mayor  of  Lon- 
don, becoming  not  only  the  first  Jewish  Lord 
Mayor,  but  the  first  Jewish  member  of  the 
Privy  Council.  In  1857  Baron  Lionel  de 
Rothschild,  having  resigned  his  seat  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  was  again  re-elected. 
The  Liberal  electors  of  London  were  deter- 
mined never  to  cease  electing  a  Jew  to  Par- 
liament until  their  efforts  were  crowned  with 
having  him  seated.  Through  all  these  years, 
bills  removing  the  disabilities  of  the  Jews 
passed  the  House  of  Commons,  and  were  as 
regularly  rejected  by  the  House  of  Lords.  In 
1858  a  new  oaths  bill,  applying  only  to  Jews, 
was  carried  in  the  House  of  Commons  and 
referred  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  was 
passed  with  certain  amendments,  which  were 
not  approved  by  the  House  of  Commons.  A 
conference  of  both  Houses  was  consequently 
appointed,  and  Baron  Lionel  de  Rothschild 
was  named  to  serve  on  the  committee.    To 


152      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

the  surprise  of  his  brother  Lords,  the  Earl 
of  Lucan  gave  notice  that  he  would  introduce 
a  bill  authorizing  either  House  of  Parliament 
to  admit  Jews  by  resolution  without  the 
obligation  to  subscribe  to  the  words  "  On  the 
faith  of  a  true  Christian."  This  bill  afterward 
passed  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  16th  of 
July,  1858,  and  the  House  of  Commons  on 
the  21st  of  the  same  month,  and  on  the  23d, 
it  received  royal  assent ;  and  Baron  de  Roths- 
child took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons on  the  26th  of  July.  The  year  follow- 
ing, Mr.  Alderman  Salomons  was  for  the 
second  time  returned  to  Parliament  and  given 
his  seat.  In  this  year,  Benjamin  Phillips  was 
elected  Sheriff  of  London  and  Middlesex.  In 
i860,  Sir  Francis  Goldsmid,  Bart.,  Q.C.,  was 
returned  for  Reading.  From  this  time  on- 
ward, Jews  became  conspicuous  in  English 
politics.  In  1864,  Mr.  John  Simon  was  made 
a  sergeant-at-law,  he  being  the  first  Jew  to 
receive  that  ancient  legal  rank.  In  this  same 
year,  Sir  Benjamin  Phillips  was  elected  Lord 


THE  JEW   IN   POLITICS  153 

Mayor  of  London;  and  for  the  creditable 
manner  in  which  he  filled  this  office  he  re- 
ceived from  Her  Majesty  the  honor  of  knight- 
hood on  the  recommendation  of  the  then 
Premier,  the  Earl  of  Derby.  Since  then  the 
following  distinguished  men  have  served  in 
Parliament:  Sir  Francis  Goldsmid,  Baron 
Meyer  de  Rothschild,  Mr.  Nathaniel  de 
Rothschild,  Mr.  Frederick  de  Goldsmid,  Mr. 
Joseph  de  Aguilar  Samuda,  Sir  George  Jessel, 
Sir  John  Simon,  Sir  Nathaniel  Meyer  de 
Rothschild,  Mr.  Julian  Goldsmid,  Mr.  Saul 
Isaac,  Mr.  Arthur  Cohen,  Baron  Henry  de 
Worms,  Mr.  Sydney  Woolf,  Baron  Ferdinand 
de  Rothschild,  the  Hon.  Walter  Lionel  de 
Rothschild,  who  was  elected  without  opposi- 
tion to  succeed  his  uncle,  the  late  Baron 
James  de  Rothschild,  Sir  Edward  Sasson,  who 
is  also  a  major  in  the  Duke  of  Cambridge's 
Hussars  Yeomanry,  Sir  Samuel  Montagu  and 
Mr.  Stuart  Montagu  Samuel,  Mr.  Harry 
Simon  Samuel,  Mr.  Benjamin  L.  Cohen,  and 
Capt.  Herbert  M.  Jessel. 


154      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

The  remarkable  rise  of  the  British  Jew  in 
politics  reached  its  highest  point  in  Benjamin 
Disraeli  (1805-81),  Earl  of  Beaconsfield, 
Premier  of  Great  Britain,  who  without  help 
or  friends  pushed  his  way  up  through  the 
middle  classes,  up  through  the  upper  classes 
until  he  swayed  the  sceptre  of  England  for 
twenty-five  years  and  became  one  of  the  con- 
trolling powers  in  European  affairs.  Scoffed, 
ridiculed,  rebuffed,  hissed  from  the  House  of 
Commons,  he  simply  said,  "  The  time  will 
come  when  you  will  hear  me."  After  three 
defeats  in  Parliamentary  elections,  he  was  not 
the  least  daunted,  for  he  knew  his  day  would 
come.  Lord  Melbourne,  the  great  Prime 
Minister,  when  the  young  man  was  intro- 
duced to  him  asked  him  what  he  wished  to 
be.  "  Prime  Minister  of  England,"  was  his 
audacious  reply.  When  an  aristocrat,  oppos- 
ing him  for  Parliament,  loftily  declared  that 
he  "  Stood  on  his  family  name  and  broad 
acres,"  Disraeli  replied,  "  I  stand  on  my 
head."    Imagine  England's  surprise,  with  her 


THE   JEW   IN    POLITICS  155 

contempt  for  self-made  men,  to  see  this  man, 
sprung  from  a  hated  and  persecuted  race, 
virtually  her  ruler. 

The  late  Lord  Herschell,  chairman  of  the 
Anglo-American  Joint  High  Commissioners 
from  Great  Britain,  twice  Lord  High  Chan- 
cellor during  the  Gladstonian  ministries,  and 
former  Chancellor  of  the  London  University, 
whose  death  at  Washington,  D.  C,  March  1, 
1899,  caused  such  profound  sorrow,  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  adjourning 
for  a  day  as  a  mark  of  respect,  and  who  a  few 
days  before  his  death  was  complimented  with 
a  seat  on  that  high  bench — a  compliment 
which  had  been  extended  only  once  pre- 
viously, in  the  instance  of  the  then  Lord  Chief 
Justice  of  England — was  of  Jewish  descent. 
George  Faudel-Phillips,  the  fourth  of  his  faith 
who  became  Lord  Mayor  of  London;  Sir 
Joseph  Wolff  Drummond,  the  English  Minis- 
ter to  Turkey;  Sir  Otto  Jafre,  former  Lord 
Mayor  of  Belfast;  and  Mr.  Louis  S.  Cohen, 
Lord  Mayor  of  Liverpool,  are  only  a  few 


156      THE   JEW  AS   A   PATRIOT 

among  scores  of  distinguished  Jews  in  the 
municipal  and  national  politics  of  England  in 
our  day. 

That  the  Jews  are  gaining  political  power 
in  England  was  recently  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  for  the  first  time  in  England's  history, 
the  proclamation  of  the  sovereign  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Privy  Council  was  signed  by 
Jews,  viz.:  Lord  Pirbright,  Sir  George  Fau- 
dell-Phillips,  and  Sir  Marcus  Samuel. 

The  late  Sir  Julius  Vogel,  the  former 
Premier  and  Agent-General  of  New  Zealand, 
was,  in  a  small  way,  the  DTsraeli  of  the  island 
colony.  He,  together  with  men  like  Sir 
Saul  Samuel  and  Sir  Julian  Solomon,  of  New 
South  Wales,  and  Maurice  Salom,  of  South 
Australia,  has  helped  to  maintain  the  pres- 
tige of  the  Jews  in  the  politics  of  the  island- 
continent.  The  new  men,  like  Isaac  A.  Isaacs 
of  Victoria,  are  worthy  of  the  older  ones,  and 
they  are  doing  good  work. 


THE   JEW   IN    POLITICS  157 

THE  JEW  IN  AMERICAN  POLITICS 

Perhaps  the  first  Jew  elected  to  office  in 
this  country  was  Colonel  Frederick  Phillips, 
of  Westchester  County,  who  was  elected  to 
the  General  Assembly  of  New  York.  On 
September  23,  1737,  the  General  Assembly 
resolved  that  Jews  could  neither  vote  for  rep- 
resentatives nor  be  admitted  as-witnesses. 
Colonel  Phillips  was  denied  his  seat. 

JEWISH    CONGRESSMEN 

Israel  Jacobs  was  the  first  Hebrew  member 
of  Congress  from  Pennsylvania,  1791  to  1793. 
Michael  W.  Ash  was  a  member  of  Congress 
from  Pennsylvania,  1835  to  1837.  David  S. 
Kauffman,  after  serving  as  speaker  of  the 
Texas  Assembly,  represented  his  State  in 
Congress  from  1847  to  1857.  In  1845  Lewis 
C.  Levin  was  sent  to  Congress  from  Philadel- 
phia, and  was  twice  re-elected.  Meyer 
Strouse  was  Congressman  from  Pennsylvania, 
1848  to  1852,  and  Philip  Phillips  from  Ala- 


158       THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

bama,  1853  to  l855-  Emanuel  B.  Hart,  of 
New  York,  was  elected  to  Congress  in  1857; 
after  serving  his  first  term  he  was  made  Sur- 
veyor of  the  Port  of  New  York.  Henry  M. 
Phillips,  of  Philadelphia,  in  his  day  one  of  the 
best  constitutional  lawyers  in  the  country, 
was  elected  to  Congress  in  1856.  Leonard 
Meyers  of  Philadelphia  represented  the 
Third  District  from  1863  to  1875.  Meyer 
Strouse,  of  Pottsville,  Pennsylvania,  served  in 
Congress  from  1863  to  1867;  Edwin  Ein- 
stein, of  New  York  City,  from  1876-78. 
Isidor  Straus,  one  of  New  York  City's  public- 
spirited  citizens,  was  sent  to  Congress  in 
1892,  declining  a  re-election.  Among  other 
Jewish  Congressmen  may  be  named  Leo- 
pold Morse  of  Boston;  Nathan  Frank  of 
St.  Louis;  Adolph  Meyer  of  Louisiana;  Jef- 
ferson M.  Levy,  Mitchell  May,  and  Lucius  M. 
Littauer  of  New  York;  Julius  Kahn  of  San 
Francisco ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  Isidor  Ray- 
ner,  of  Baltimore,  the  present  Attorney- 
General  of  Maryland  and  counsel  for  Rear- 


THE   JEW   IN    POLITICS  159 

Admiral  Schley,  whose  three  hours'  speech 
at  the  close  of  the  investigation  made  him 
nationally  famous  as  an  orator,  the  mingled 
irony,  invective,  lively  humor,  and  passionate 
appeal  recalling  the  fervid  periods  of  Henry, 
Calhoun,  and  Clay. 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  SENATE 

Judah  P.  Benjamin,  who  declined  President 
Pierce's  offer  of  a  judgeship  of  the  Supreme 
Court  bench  on  account  of  his  extensive  pri- 
vate business,  but  who,  in  1852,  was  chosen 
United  States  Senator  from  Louisiana,  was 
the  ablest  legal  advocate  slavery  ever  had. 
On  one  occasion,  he  appeared  against  Daniel 
Webster  in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court. 
Webster  talked  for  three  hours  and  made  one 
of  his  finest  efforts. 

Then  came  Benjamin,  a  little  weazened, 
dried-up  man  with  a  thin  and  hollow  voice, 
and  talked  for  twenty  minutes,  when  the 
Chief  Justice  turned  to  his  colleagues  and 
whispered:    "  Great  heavens!  that  little  man 


160      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

has  stated  Webster  out  of  court  in  twenty 
minutes." 

On  his  withdrawal  from  the  United  States 
Senate,  on  February  4,  i860,  he  was  at  once 
appointed  Attorney-General  in  the  Provi- 
sional government  of  the  Southern  Con- 
federacy. In  the  following  August  he  was 
appointed  Acting  Secretary  of  War;  subse- 
quently he  became  Secretary  of  State,  which 
position  he  held  until  the  downfall  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  He  was,  in  truth,  the 
brains  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

When  Richmond  fell,  Benjamin  fled  with 
other  members  of  the  Cabinet.  He  was 
separated  from  them  and  escaped  from  the 
east  coast  of  Florida  to  the  Bahamas  in  an 
open  boat.  From  there  he  made  his  way  to 
Nassau,  reaching  Liverpool  in  1865.  He  had 
little  money.  He  was  fifty-five  years  old.  He 
entered  Lincoln's  Inn  as  a  student,  having 
previously  devoted  himself  to  English  law. 
In  the  following  summer  he  was  called  to  the 
bar. 


THE  JEW   IN   POLITICS  161 

London  refused  to  notice  him.  He  turned 
to  journalism  to  make  a  living.  His  "Treatise 
on  the  Law  of  Sale  of  Personal  Property  "  is 
to  this  day  the  authority  on  the  subject  in 
English  law.  Then  the  fame  and  practice  of 
Benjamin  grew  rapidly.  He  was  recognized 
at  the  time  of  his  death  as  the  leader  of  the 
English  bar,  and  one  of  the  great  legal  minds 
of  the  world.  When  failing  health  compelled 
him  to  retire,  in  1883,  a  great  banquet  was 
given  to  him  in  the  hall  of  the  Inner  Temple 
in  London,  where  gathered  all  the  foremost 
men  in  England — a  tribute  such  as  few  men 
have  ever  received. 

Other  Jewish  United  States  Senators  have 
been  David  L.  Yulee  of  Florida;  B.  F.  Jonas, 
from  Louisiana;  and  at  present  Joseph 
Simon  of  Oregon. 

Joseph  Seligman  declined,  for  personal 
reasons,  the  Secretaryship  of  the  Treasury  in 
President  Grant's  cabinet,  and  Isidor  Straus 
declined  the  Postmaster-Generalship  in  Presi- 
dent Cleveland's  cabinet. 


i62      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

JEWISH   JUDGES 

The  following  are  some  of  the  Hebrews 
who  have  held  important  judgeships :  Moses 
Levy,  whose  admission  to  the  Bar  of  Philadel- 
phia dates  as  far  back  as  March  19,  1778,  after 
occupying  various  offices  became  Presiding 
Judge  of  "  the  District  Court  for  the  City  and 
County  of  Philadelphia."  Mayer  Isaac 
Franks  has  been  mentioned  as  a  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania,  but  the  ex- 
act time  when  he  served  cannot  be  de- 
termined. Franklin  J.  Moses  (1804-77)  was 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Cali- 
fornia in  185 1.  Among  the  Supreme  Court 
judges  of  New  York,  we  can  recall  Joseph  E. 
Newburger,  W.  N.  Cohen,  David  Levintritt, 
Samuel  Greenbaum,  and  Alfred  Steckler. 

JEWISH    DIPLOMATS 

During  the  first  decade  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, Soloman  B.  Nones  was  Consul-General 
to  Portugal.     President  Madison  appointed 


THE  JEW   IN   POLITICS  163 

Mordecai  M.  Noah  Consul-General  to  Tunis. 
Colonel  Max  Einstein  was  appointed  by 
President  Lincoln  Consul  at  Nuremberg, 
Germany.  B.  F.  Peixotto  was  Consul  at 
Lyons  during  the  administrations  of  Presi- 
dents Hayes,  Garfield,  and  Arthur.  Marcus 
Otterbourg,  of  New  York,  was  the  first 
American  Hebrew  to  occupy  the  high  office 
of  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Pleni- 
potentiary to  Mexico.  Oscar  Straus  was 
President  Cleveland's  and  President  McKin- 
ley's  Minister  to  Turkey.  Solomon  Hirsch 
was  President  Harrison's  Minister  to  Turkey. 

Robert  Etting,  of  Philadelphia,  first  captain 
of  the  Independent  Blues  in  1798,  was  ap- 
pointed by  President  Thomas  Jefferson 
United  States  Marshal  for  the  State  of  Mary- 
land in  1 801. 

By  appointment  of  President  Pierce,  Isaac 
Phillips  was  made  General  Appraiser  of  the 
Port  of  New  York,  a  position  which  he  occu- 
pied for  fifteen  years.  Colonel  Louis  Fleisch- 
ner   and   Edward   Hirsch   have   been   State 


164      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

Treasurers  of  Oregon.  Edward  Kanter  has 
been  State  Treasurer  of  Michigan.  Simon 
Wolf,  appointed  by  President  Grant  Recorder 
of  Deeds  for  the  District  of  Columbia ;  S.  W. 
Rosendale,  formerly  Attorney-General  of 
New  York;  Randolph  Guggenheimer ;  Jacob 
A.  Cantor,  President  of  the  Borough  of  Man- 
hattan; the  Seligmans;  and  Theo.  W.  Myers, 
formerly  Controller  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
— these  are  only  a  few  of  hundreds  of  Jews, 
who  might  be  named  in  every  section  of  our 
country,  whose  courageous  and  persistent 
advocacy  of  righteousness  in  politics  have 
made  the  Jew  a  mighty  power  for  good  in 
municipal,  State,  and  national  life. 


The  Number  of  Jews  the  World 
Over 


Where  are  now  the  great  and  famous  monarchies 
(Egypt,  Assyria,  Babylon,  Syro-Macedonia,  and  Rome) 
which  in  their  turn  subdued  and  oppressed  the  people 
of  God?  Are  they  not  vanished  as  a  dream,  and  not 
only  their  power,  but  their  very  names  lost  in  the 
earth?  Nay,  not  only  nations  have  been  punished  for 
their  cruelties  to  the  Jews,  but  divine  vengeance  hath 
pursued  even  single  persons  who  have  been  their 
persecutors  and  oppressors.  Besides  many  individual 
Jewish  oppressors  who  came  to  an  untimely  end  may 
be  named  Antiochus  Epiphanes  and  Herod,  who,  after 
having  become  intolerable  to  themselves  and  their  at- 
tendants, died  in  great  agony;  Nebuchadnezzar,  who 
was  stricken  with  insanity;  Flaccus,  governor  of  Egypt, 
who  was  banished  and  murdered;  and  Caligula,  who 
was  also  murdered  in  the  flower  of  his  age,  after  a 
wicked  short  reign.  And  if  such  hath  been  the  fatal 
end  of  the  enemies  and  oppressors  of  the  Jews,  let  it 
serve  as  a  warning  to  all  those  who,  at  any  time  or 
upon  any  occasion,  are  for  raising  a  clamor  ancl  perse- 
cution against  them. — Bishop  Newton,  "  Dissertations 
o-  the  Prophecies." 

1 66 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  NUMBER  OF  JEWS  THE  WORLD  OVER 

Austria-Hungary  has  1,866,837  Jews; 
Germany  567,884,  of  whom  379,716  live  in 
Prussia.  In  the  British  Empire  there  are 
227,447,  distributed  as  follows : 

England  and  Wales 138,000 

Scotland —  4,000 

Ireland   3*769 

Australasia 16,000 

Canada  and  British  Columbia . .  30,000 

Barbadoes 21 

Trinidad  31 

Jamaica 200 

India 17,500 

Transvaal  Colony 10,000 

167, 


168      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

Cape  Colony 3,009 

Orange  River  Colony 113 

Gibraltar   1,000 

Malta 173 

Aden 2,826 

Cyprus 127 

Hong  Kong 143 

Straits  Settlements 535 

Holland  has  97,324  Jews,  one  half  of  whom 
are  to  be  found  in  Amsterdam;  France, 
80,000,  of  whom  three-fourths  live  in  Paris; 
Italy,  50,000,  of  whom  the  majority  inhabit 
the  northern  and  middle  portions  of  the  coun- 
try. There  are  8,069  Jews  in  Switzerland; 
in  Belgium,  4,000;  Denmark,  4,080;  Swe- 
den and  Norway,  3,402;  Luxemburg,  1,054; 
Spain,  402 ;  and  in  Portugal  hardly  any,  where 
prior  to  the  fifteenth  century  there  lived  over 
half  a  million  Jews. 

In  Eastern  Europe,  in  addition  to  Rou- 
mania  with  269,015,  there  are  Turkey  with 
350,000;    Greece,    5,792,   most   of   them   in 


THE   NUMBER   OF  JEWS        169 

Corfu;  Bulgaria,  28,307;  Servia,  5,102.  In 
Asia,  the  cradle  of  their  race,  we  find  in 
Turkey  in  Asia,  150,000;  Persia,  35,000; 
Russia,  5,700,000 — more  Jews  than  all  the 
rest  of  Europe  together,  so  that  half  of  the 
descendants  of  Abraham  are  still  subject  to 
special  laws  and  denied  the  rights  of  citizen- 
ship; Turkestan  and  Afghanistan,  14,000,  and 
China,  300. 

In  Africa,  where  they  had  colonized  before 
the  Christian  era,  we  find  in  Egypt,  25,200; 
Abyssinia  (Falashas),  120,000;  Tunis,  45,000; 
Algeria,  43,000;  Morocco,  150,000. 

In  other  countries  we  find  in  the  Argentine 
Republic,  7,015;  Costa  Rica,  35;  Bosnia, 
Herzegovina,  8,215;  Mexico,  1,000;  Curagoa, 
831;  Surinam,  1,250;  Peru,  489;  Crete,  726, 
and  Venezuela,  411. 

In  Jerusalem  there  are  about  23,000  Jews ; 
and  while  we  hope  for  the  day  when  the  Holy 
Land  will  be  restored  to  the  Jew,  we  cannot 
believe  that  Zionism  is  the  ultimate  exalta- 
tion of  the  Jew.    The  whole  of  Palestine  could 


i^o      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

not  contain  the  Jewish  population  of  the 
world,  about  11,000,000,  for  it  is  no  bigger 
than  Wales.  Palestine  has  very  little  to  com- 
mend it  to  the  Jew  except  its  Biblical  asso- 
ciations. America,  and  not  Palestine,  is  be- 
coming the  Jewish  Mecca.  America  is  the 
Zion  from  which  will  go  forth  the  law.  Here 
is  liberty  enlightening  the  world. 

The  total  Jewish  immigration  to  the  United 
States,  through  the  ports  of  New  York,  Phil- 
adelphia, and  Baltimore,  from  1881  to  July  1, 
1901,  was  644,966.  This  does  not  take  into 
account  immigration  through  Canada  or  at 
ports  other  than  those  mentioned  above.  The 
immigration  at  the  port  of  New  York  from 
July  1,  1899,  to  June  30,  1900,  was  as  follows: 

Austrians   13,004 

Danes   1 

Dutch   25 

English 125 

French 55 

Germans 289 


THE   NUMBER   OF  JEWS         171 

Roumanians 5>6i3 

Russians 24,927 

Swedes 15 

Turks 147 

Irish 5 

Norwegians   2 

Total 44>2o8 

At  the  port  of  Philadelphia,  the  immigra- 
tion for  the  year  ending  November  1,  1900, 
was  3870,  against  1649  f°r  tne  preceding 
year. 

At  the  port  of  Baltimore  the  immigration 
from  July   1,   1900,  to  June  30,   1901,  was 

1343. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  the  Jewish 
population  in  the  United  States  was  about 
700  families.  Mordecai  M.  Noah  in  1818  es- 
timated  the  Jewish  population  of  the  United 
States  as  3/xx);  after  the  Revolution  many 
returned  to  England,  others  went  to  the  West 
Indies.    Isaac  Harby  in  1826  estimated  that 


172      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

there  were  not  over  6,000  Jews  in  the  United 
States.  The  "  American  Almanac  "  in  1840 
gives  the  number  as  15,000,  while  M.  A.  Berk 
in  his  "  History  of  the  Jews,"  published  in 
1848,  puts  down  50,000  as  the  number  of 
Jews  in  the  United  States,  12,000  residing  in 
New  York  and  4,000  in  Philadelphia. 

Throughout  the  period  of  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  many  obstacles  hindered  the  departure 
of  the  German  Jews,  and  for  a  time  afterward, 
in  view  of  the  great  political  concessions, 
which  they  gained  from  the  German  rulers  in 
return  for  their  valor  and  heroic  sacrifices  of 
life  and  substance  for  the  Fatherland,  there 
was  little  immigration.  It  was  not  until  the 
beginning  of  steam  navigation  on  the  Atlan- 
tic that  any  considerable  Jewish  immigration 
was  made  to  this  country. 

At  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  there  were 
about  150,000  Jews  in  the  United  States.  In 
September,  1880,  the  Union  of  Hebrew  Con- 
gregations published  221,064  as  the  number 
of  Jews  then  in  the  United  States.     In  1897, 


THE   NUMBER   OF  JEWS         173 

according  to  the  estimate  of  David  Sulz- 
berger, our  Jewish  population  was  937,800, 
while  the  American  Jewish  Year  Book  for 
1901  gives  1,045,555  as  the  number,  distrib- 
uted as  follows: 

Alabama 7,000 

Arizona   2,000 

Arkansas  4,000 

California 25,000 

Colorado 8,000 

Connecticut   15,000 

North  and  South  Dakota 3>500 

Delaware 1,200 

District  of  Columbia 3>5°° 

Florida   3,000 

Georgia 6,000 

Hawaiian  Islands 20 

Idaho 300 

Illinois 75,ooo 

Indiana  25,000 

Iowa   5,000 

Kansas 3,000 


174      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

Kentucky  12,000 

Maine  5,000 

Maryland 35,ooo 

Massachusetts   60,000 

Michigan 9,000 

Minnesota   10,000 

Mississippi 3,000 

Missouri   50,000 

Montana 2,500 

Nebraska 3,000 

Nevada  300 

New  Hampshire 1,000 

New  Jersey 25,000 

New  Mexico 1,500 

New  York 400,000 

North  California 6,000 

Ohio    50,000 

Oklahoma 1,000 

Oregon 5,000 

Pennsylvania    95,ooo 

Porto  Rico 100 

Rhode  Island 3>50° 

South  Carolina 2,500 


THE   NUMBER   OF  JEWS         175 

Tennessee  10,000 

Texas 1 5,000 

Utah 5,000 

Vermont 700 

Virginia 15,000 

Washington 2,800 

West  Virginia 1,500 

Wisconsin 15,000 

Wyoming 1,000 

In  all  the  world,  there  are  probably  1 1,000,- 
000  Jews,  4,000,000  more  than  there  were  in 
the  time  of  David.  Lord  Beaconsfield  has 
well  said :  "  The  world  has  by  this  time  dis- 
covered that  it  is  impossible  to  destroy  the 
Jews.  The  attempt  to  extirpate  them  has 
been  made  under  the  most  favorable  auspices 
and  on  the  largest  scale;  the  most  consider- 
able means  that  man  could  command  have 
been  pertinaciously  applied  to  this  object 
for  the  longest  period  of  recorded  time. 
Egyptian  pharaohs,  Assyrian  kings,  Roman 
emperors,    Scandinavian    crusaders,    Gothic 


176      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

princes,  and  holy  inquisitors  have  alike  de- 
voted their  energies  to  the  fulfillment  of  this 
common  purpose.  Expatriation,  exile,  cap- 
tivity, confiscation,  torture  on  the  most  in- 
genious and  massacre  on  the  most  extensive 
scale ;  a  curious  system  of  degrading  customs 
and  debasing  laws  which  would  have  broken 
the  heart  of  another  people,  have  been  tried 
and  in  vain.  The  Jews,  after  all  this  havoc, 
probably  more  numerous  at  this  date  than 
they  were  during  the  reign  of  Solomon  the 
Wise,  are  found  in  all  lands,  and  prospering  in 
most.  All  which  proves  that  it  is  in  vain 
for  man  to  attempt  to  barBe  the  inexorable 
law  of  Nature,  which  has  decreed  that  a  su- 
perior race  shall  never  be  destroyed  or  ab- 
sorbed by  an  inferior." 


The  World's  Indebtedness  to  the 
Jews 


If  the  statistics  are  right,  the  Jews  constitute  but 
one  per  cent,  of  the  human  race.  It  suggests  a  nebu- 
lous dim  puff  of  star-dust  lost  in  the  blaze  of  the  Milky 
Way.  Properly  -the  Jew  ought  hardly  to  be  heard  of; 
but  he  is  heard  of,  has  always  been  heard  of.  He  is  as 
prominent  on  the  planet  as  any  other  people,  and  his 
commercial  importance  is  extravagantly  out  of  pro- 
portion to  the  smallness  of  his  bulk.  His  contributions 
to  the  world's  list  of  great  names  in  literature,  science, 
art,  music,  finance,  medicine,  and  abstruse  learning  are 
also  away  out  of  proportion  to  the  weakness  of  his 
numbers.  He  has  made  a  marvelous  fight  in  this  world, 
in  all  the  ages;  and  has  done  it  with  his  hands  tied 
behind  him.  He  could  be  vain  of  himself,  and  be 
excused  for  it.  The  Egyptian,  the  Babylonian,  and  the 
Persian  arose,  filled  the  planet  with  sound  and  splendor, 
then  faded  to  dreamstuflf  and  passed  away;  the  Greek 
and  the  Roman  followed,  and  made  a  vast  noise,  and 
they  are  gone;  other  peoples  have  sprung  up  and  held 
their  torch  high  for  a  time,  but  it  burned  out,  and  they 
sit  in  twilight  now  or  have  vanished.  The  Jew  saw 
them  all,  beat  them  all,  and  is  now  what  he  always 
was,  exhibiting  no  decadence,  no  infirmities  of  age, 
no  weakening  of  his  parts,  no  slowing  of  his  energies, 
no  dulling  of  his  alert  and  aggressive  mind.  All 
things  are  mortal  but  the  Jew,  all  other  forces  pass, 
but  he  remains.  What  is  the  secret  of  his  immortality? 
—Mark  Twain,  "  Concerning  the  Jews." 
178 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  WORLD'S  INDEBTEDNESS  TO 
THE  JEWS 

NEED    OF   KNOWLEDGE 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  in  his  "  Over- 
the  Teacups  "  says :  "  If  the  creeds  of  man- 
kind would  try  to  understand  each  other  be- 
fore attempting"  mutual  extermination,  they 
would  be  sure  to  find  a  meaning  in  beliefs 
which  are  different  from  their  own."  Chris- 
tians have  many  things  in  common  with  the 
Jews.  We  can  readily  agree  with  Lessing, 
when  he  makes  the  Christian  monk  say  to  the 
Jewish  Nathan: 

"  Heaven  bless  us! 
That  makes  me  to  you  a  Christian 
Makes  you  to  me  a  Jew." 

It  was  said  of  Sydney  Smith  that  he  would 

not  read  a  book  which  he  was  to  review, — 
179 


i8o      THE   JEW   AS   A   PATRIOT 

reading  it  might  prejudice  his  judgment. 
When  Charles  Lamb  was  berating  an  enemy, 
some  one  said  to  him,  "  Why,  you  don't  know 
him."  Lamb  replied,  "  I  don't  want  to  know 
him,  for  fear  I  should  like  him."  Christians 
and  Jews  make  ignorance  of  each  other  a 
claim  for  judgment,  and  seem  to  be  afraid  to 
become  acquainted  for  fear  that  they  might 
like  each  other. 

Few  Christians  know  the  relatively  enor- 
mous part  taken  by  the  Jews,  emancipated 
but  a  few  decades,  in  the  civilization  of 
mankind.  Lord  Beaconsfield  when  taunted 
in  the  House  of  Lords  for  his  Jewish  extrac- 
tion exclaimed,  "  I  can  well  afford  to  be 
called  a  Jew."  When  the  modern  Jew  en- 
lightens himself  upon  the  achievements  of  his 
race,  practices  the  virtues  and  avoids  the 
faults  of  his  ancestors,  he  will  prepare  the  way 
for  a  glorious  future  for  himself  and  his 
descendants. 

When  an  impartial  historian  shall  write  the 
wonderful  achievements  of  the  geniuses  of 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE   JEWS  181 

the  nineteenth  century,  Jewish  names  will  be 
found  on  every  page,  and  the  Jewish  people 
might  well  take  to  heart  Goethe's  true  lines : 

"Willst  du  immer  weiter  schweifen? 
Sieh,  das  Gute  liegt  so  nah." 

Long  before  Socrates  taught  philosophy 
or  before  Herodotus  wrote  history,  Israel  was 
an  organized  civilization.  They  had  literature 
before  most  nations  had  letters  and  art,  while 
other  nations  knew  only  war  and  savagery. 
Draper  quotes  Cabanis  as  saying  that  "they  " 
— the  Jews — "  were  our  factors  and  bankers 
before  we  knew  how  to  read." 

While  the  ancestors  of  European  kings  and 
nobles  were  reveling  in  coarseness  or  igno- 
rantly  bending  their  backs  to  the  commands 
of  their  superiors,  the  Jews  were  the  torch- 
bearers  of  the  world.  Talk  about  pedigree! 
What  are  your  Sons  and  Daughters  of  the 
Revolution,  or  your  Sons  of  the  Crusaders 
compared  to  the  Levys,  Sons  of  the  Levites, 
and  the  numerous  Cahens,  Cohens,  Kohns, 


182      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

and  Coehns,  whose  undisputed  ancestors  are 
the  Cohanim,  priests  of  the  synagogue,  who 
burned  incense  before  Jehovah  preparatory 
to  going  in  the  shade  of  Babel  to  discuss  the 
origin  of  the  world  with  the  augurs  of  Chaldea 
and  the  magi  of  Iran. 

At  a  dinner-party,  two  or  three  men  got 
into  a  somewhat  tiresome  talk  about  the  an- 
tiquity of  their  families.  Disraeli  turned  to  a 
friend  and  said :  "Think  of  these  fellows  talk- 
ing about  the  antiquity  of  their  families  to  me 
— to  me,  whose  ancestor  was  the  accepted 
lover  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba."  It  is  related 
that  when  Sir  Moses  Montefiore  was  taunted 
by  a  political  opponent  with  the  memory  of 
Calvary  and  described  as  one  who  sprang 
from  the  murderers  who  crucified  the  world's 
Redeemer,  the  next  morning  the  Jewish  phi- 
lanthropist, whom  Christendom  has  learned 
to  honor,  called  upon  his  assailant  and 
showed  him  the  record  of  his  ancestors  which 
had  been  kept  for  two  thousand  years,  and 
which  showed  that  their  home  had  been  in 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE  JEWS  183 

Spain  for  two  hundred  years  before  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  was  born! 

NO  APOLOGY  NEEDED  FOR  THE  JEW 

No  man  needs  to  apologize  for  belonging 
to  a  race  which  has  produced  such  poets  as 
Jehudah  Halevi,  whose  soul-stirring  "'Elegy 
of  Zion,"  according  to  Schleiden,  has  not  been 
surpassed  in  the  whole  compass  of  religious 
poetry,  Milton's  not  excepted;  Heinrich 
Heine,  whom  Mathew  Arnold  termed  "  the 
most  important  successor  and  continuator  of 
Goethe  in  Goethe's  most  important  line  of 
activity  " ;  and  Holger  Drachmann,  the  pres- 
ent-day Minnesinger  of  the  North,  who 
is  rated  by  the  greatest  living  Danish  poet, 
Bjornson,  as  the  greatest  living  lyric  poet, 
Scandinavian  or  Danish,  and  whom  the  critics 
of  Europe  pronounce  a  poet  the  equal  of 
Byron  in  poetic  instinct,  and  comparable  to 
Tennyson  for  splendor  and  facility  of  rhythm ; 
— such  novelists  as  Auerbach,  whose  thrilling 
descriptions  of  German  village  life,  so  remark- 


184      THE   JEW  AS   A   PATRIOT 

able  for  their  philosophical  reflection  and 
poetic  feeling,  have  been  translated  into  the 
principal  languages  of  Europe; Benjamin  Dis- 
raeli, whose  "  Vivian  Grey,"  published  when 
the  author  was  but  twenty-two  years  of  age, 
the  originality,  virility,  and  wit  of  which  made 
it  the  most  celebrated  book  of  the  day  in  all 
Europe;  A.  Bernstein,  the  first  novelist  to 
popularize  science;  and  Israel  Zangwill,  born 
in  one  of  the  poorest  hovels  of  the  White- 
chapel  Ghetto,  who  at  thirty-eight  years  of 
age  stands  acknowledged  one  of  the  fore- 
most writers  and  critics  of  the  day ; — such  lit- 
terateurs, of  the  essayist  type,  as  Ludwig 
Borne,  Gabriel  Riesser,  and  Karl  Blind ;  such 
literary  critics  as  Isaac  Disraeli,  Michael  Ber- 
nays,  and  George  Brandes ;  such  antiquarians 
as  M.  A.  Levy,  one  of  the  chief  authorities  in 
ancient  epigraphy ;  J.  L.  Klein,  who  has  given 
us  the  most  voluminous  work  in  the  drama 
ever  written;  and  Solomon  Schechter,  for- 
merly of  the  ancient  University  of  Cambridge 
and  the  University  of  London,  now  of  the 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE  JEWS  185 

Jewish  Theological  Seminary  in  New  York, 
the  great  discoverer  not  only  of  ancient 
cities,  but  of  ancient  manuscripts,  and  whose 
universal  acquaintance  not  only  with  Hebrew 
but  with  universal  literature  has  made  him 
for  years  the  dominant  figure  in  the  most  bril- 
liant university  circles; — such  dramatists  as 
Abraham  Millaud,  Halevy,  the  composer's 
nephew,  who  in  opera,  comedy,  and  vaude- 
ville proved  himself,  next  to  D'Ennery,  an- 
other Jew,  the  most  prolific  of  French  dram- 
atists; Kalisch,  Jacobson,  Fulda,  and  Schles- 
singer  among  the  Germans ;  Von  Weilen  and 
Burger  among  the  Austrians ;  and  Mordecai 
M.  Noah,  Sydney  Rosenfeld,  David  Belasco, 
and  Martha  Morton  among  Americans; — 
such  actors  as  Adolph  Ritter  von  Sonnen- 
thal,  the  dramatic  idol  of  the  Austrian 
capital;  Ludwig  Barnay,  the  great  German; 
and  John  Braham,  whose  dramatic  genius 
was  equalled  by  his  peerless  voice; — such 
actresses  as  Rachel,  whose  wonderful  im- 
personation of  lofty  classical  heroines,  fine 


186      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

delineation  of  the  fiercer  emotions,  and 
magnetism  of  gestures  and  voice,  made 
her  the  most  renowned  artist  of  her  day, 
and  whose  only  rival  in  European  fame  is  an- 
other Jewess,  Sara  Bernhardt,  the  astonish- 
ing Sara,  apostrophized  by  Edmond  Rostand 
as  "  Queen  of  Attitude  and  Princess  of 
Gestures  " ; — such  singers  as  that  original 
genius,  Pauline  Lucca,  "  the  transcendentally 
human  " ;  Caroline  Gomperz-Bettelheim,  the 
famous  Austrian  court  contralto ;  and  Emma 
Calve,  Lilli  Lehmann,  Melba,  Patti,  Marcella 
Sembrich,  and  the  De  Reszkes,  who  have  at 
least  a  few  Jewish  corpuscles  in  their  veins; 
— such  musical  geniuses  as  Mendelssohn, 
Meyerbeer,  Halevy,  Offenbach,  Goldmark, 
Strauss,  Moscheles,  Cowen,  Benedict,  Costa, 
the  Damrosches,  the  Strakosches,  Rubin- 
stein, Rosenthal,  Joachim,  Joseffy,  and  Hoff- 
mann ; — such  artists  as  Israels,  the  delineator 
of  Dutch  fisher-life;  Solomon  J.  Solomon, 
who  stands  among  the  first  of  English  artists ; 
A.  Solomon,  once  celebrated  for  his  painting 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   JEWS  187 

"  Waiting  for  the  Verdict  " ;  S.  A.  Hart,  the 
first  Jewish  Royal  Academician;  the  French 
brothers  Lehman,  E.  Levy,  H.  L.  Levy,  R. 
Ulmann,  and  J.  Worms;  the  Germans,  F.  E. 
Meyerheim  and  Heinrich  Schlessinger;  and, 
among  Americans,  Constant  Meyer,  Henry 
Mossier,  Jacob  H.  Lazarus,  and  Ben  Aus- 
trian, whose  "  A  Day's  Hunt,"  an  exquisite 
game  piece,  sold  for  $2500,  the  largest  sum 
ever  paid  for  a  still-life  painting  in  America, 
and  whose  latest  triumph,  "  A  Golden  Har- 
vest," a  painting  of  seed-corn  against  a 
weather-stained  old  barn  upon  which  it  hangs, 
is  natural  enough  to  make  a  farmer  lift  his  hat 
and  wipe  his  eyes; — such  sculptors  as  Moses 
J.  Ezekiel,  whose  works  have  been  exhibited 
in  all  the  art  centers  of  Europe,  and  Anto- 
kalski,  Russia's  greatest  sculptor ; — such  phi- 
losophers as  Philo,  one  of  the  ornaments  of 
the  Hellenic  literature  in  the  first  half  of  the 
first  century  a.d.  ;  Maimonides,  the  most 
powerful  light  of  the  middle  ages,  the  teacher 
of  Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas, 


188      THE   JEW  AS   A   PATRIOT 

the  master  minds  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church;  Spinoza,  to  whom  Schleiermacher 
gave  the  strange  but  suggestive  name  "  God- 
intoxicated  man  " ;  and  Moses  Mendelssohn, 
one  of  the  pioneers  of  modern  German  clas- 
sical literature ; — such  historians  as  Neander, 
whose  original  name  was  David  Mendel  and 
whose  father  was  a  Jewish  peddler,  and  Eders- 
heim,  whose  Life  of  Christ  is  the  greatest  and 
most  faithful  representation  ever  written,  de- 
fending the  orthodox  dogma  of  Jesus  against 
the  theories  of  Strauss;  G.  F.  Herzberg,  the 
German  Greek  historian;  S.  Rowanin,  the 
historian  of  Venice  and  Hungary;  and  Lud- 
wig  Geiger,  the  leading  authority  on  the 
Renaissance; — such  economists  as  Ricardo, 
Marx,  and  Lassalle,  and  M.  de  Bloch,  the 
Russian  banker,  whose  book  on  the  cost  of 
modern  warefare  has  been  translated  into  all 
European  languages  and  is  believed  to  have 
given  the  impetus  to  the  Tsar  for  the  conven- 
tion of  the  Peace  Conference  at  the  Hague; 
— such  original  thinkers  as  Cesare  Lombroso, 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE  JEWS  189 

and  Max  Nordau,  the  apostles  of  the  theory 
of  degeneracy,  whose  arguments  and  sub- 
mitted proofs  have  startled  the  world  and  al- 
ready are  accepted  as  the  new  gospel  whose 
light  discloses  the  hidden  springs  of  crime; 
— such  mathematicians  as  Sylvester,  the  co- 
founder  with  his  friend  Cayler  of  the  modern 
higher  Algebra,  and  Jacobi,  after  whom  cer- 
tain intricate  functions  are  termed  Jacobians; 
such  explorers  as  Emin  Pasha,  Gustav  Op- 
pert,  and  Ed.  Glaser ;  such  astronomers  as  the 
Herschels,  Goldschmidt,  the  discoverer  of 
more  than  fourteen  asteroids  between  1852 
and  1861,  and  who  pointed  out  more  than 
10,000  stars  that  were  wanting  in  the  maps 
of  the  Academy  at  Berlin,  and  W.  Beer,  the 
composer  Meyerbeer's  brother  and  the  first 
cartographist  of  the  moon ; — such  philologists 
as  Benfey,  who  holds  the  same  position  in 
Germany  that  Max  Muller  did  in  England; 
Ollendorf,  who  invented  the  method  by  which 
the  modern  languages  are  taught;  Michael 
Breal,  one  of  the  leading  authorities  on  com- 


190      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

parative  mythology  and  philology  in  France ; 
the  classic  philologist,  M.  Bernhardy,  the 
famous  historian  of  Greek  and  Roman  liter- 
ature ;  and  Jules  Oppert,  after  Rawlinson  the 
greatest  Assyriologist ; — such  higher  critics 
as  Simon  Ben  Lachish,  who  appeared  in  the 
middle  of  the  third  century  as  the  first  higher 
critic,  declaring  that  Job  was  simply  the  prod- 
uct of  a  noble  poem,  and  that  the  names  of 
angels  were  borrowed  by  the  Jews  from  a 
foreign  people  while  they  were  in  exile,  and 
Abraham  Ibn  Ezra,  who,  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, published  a  critical  commentary  on 
Isaiah  which  is  up  to  date  with  Cheyne, 
Briggs,  and  Abbott; — such  physicians  as 
Traube,  a  name  in  medicine  standing  second 
to  none;  Valentine,  whose  knife  is  still  used 
by  specialists;  the  Liebreichs,  one  the  in- 
ventor of  the  eye-mirror,  the  other  the  dis- 
coverer of  chloral  hydrate  as  an  anaesthetic 
and  hypnotic;  Dr.  Koller,  the  discoverer  of 
the  use  of  cocaine;  Virchow  and  Koch,  the 
tuberculosis   specialists; — such   botanists   as 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO  THE  JEWS  191 

Cohn  and  Pringsheim,  among  the  greatest 
names  in  German  botany ;  Bernstein,  Rosen- 
thal, and  Cohnheim,  specialists  in  the  physi- 
ology of  the  nerves ;  P.  J.  Reiss,  the  physicist 
and  first  Jew  to  enter  the  Berlin  Academy, 
and  Semmelweis,  who  first  discovered  the  true 
cause  of  puerperal  infection  (child-bed  fever) ; 
— such  jurists  as  Edward  Gans,  the  associate 
of  Hegel;  Edward  Lasker,  who  gave  to  the 
world  an  erudite  work  on  the  Constitutional 
History  of  Prussia;  and  Judah  P.  Benjamin, 
who,  after  having  attained  eminence  in  the 
United  States  Senate  and  as  a  Cabinet  officer 
in  the  Confederate  Government,  resumed  the 
practice  of  law  in  England  and  was  acknowl- 
edged by  Sir  Henry  James  and  Sir  Charles 
Russell  the  leader  of  the  English  bar  at 
the  time  of  his  death; — such  statesmen  as 
Cremieux,  Raynal,  and  Millaud  in  France; 
Luzzatti,  the  Italian  Minister  of  Finance ;  and 
Disraeli,  who  pushed  his  way  up  through  the 
middle  classes,  up  through  the  upper  classes, 
until  he  stood  self-poised  upon  the  topmost 


192      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

round  of  political  and  social  power,  forcing 
his  leadership  upon  that  very  party  whose 
prejudices  were  deepest  against  his  hated 
race,  and  for  twenty  years  was  one  of  the  con- 
trolling powers  in  European  affairs.  To  be- 
long to  such  a  race,  which  has  produced  pro- 
portionately a  greater  number  of  great  men 
than  any  other  race  of  whom  history  bears 
record,  any  man  ought  to  be  proud — proud 
both  to  be  called  and  to  look  like  a  Jew! 

THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE 

In  finance  the  Jew  has  for  four  hundred 
years  been  the  factor  that  supplied  the 
nations  of  the  earth  with  money.  The 
financial  system  of  the  world,  its  inven- 
tions and  perfection,  we  owe  to  the  Roths- 
childs, who  were  the  first  to  make  national 
loans  popular.  The  Jew  in  finance  is  inva- 
riably a  creator  and  not  a  puller-down.  Many 
of  the  great  fortunes  which  have  been  made, 
notably   in   America,    have   been    made   by 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   JEWS  193 

wrecking  railroads  and  other  established  and 
incorporated  industries.  The  Jews,  with  com- 
paratively few  exceptions,  made  their  money 
as  manufacturers  and  merchants.  Poliakoff, 
the  Russian  railway  king;  the  Pereres,  the 
French  railway  kings;  and  the  Rothschilds 
are  among  the  few  exceptions.  Capital  and 
Jew  are  not  synonymous  terms;  the  leading 
spirits  of  the  antagonistic  forces — capital  and 
labor — are  Jews.  There  are  financiers  like 
the  Rothschilds,  and  there  are  socialistic  Jews 
like  Lassalle,  Marx,  and  Singer.  The  capi- 
talists cannot  curse  the  Jews,  and  the  social- 
ists cannot  dynamite  the  Jews,  without  aban- 
doning their  very  leaders. 

Six  hundred  thousand  Jews  living  in  Africa 
and  Asia  are  poor.  Four  and  one-half  mil- 
lions who  live  in  the  east  of  Europe  are  only 
just  raised  above  pauperism,  while  a  goodly 
proportion  are  sunk  below  even  that  level. 
Among  the  four  millions  of  Russian  Jews 
only  a  few  names,  like  Gunsburg,  Iseman, 
Kronenberg,  Posnanski,   Bregman,  Zucker- 


i94      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

man,  the  Zabludowskis,  Raffalovitch,  Polia- 
koff,  Ephrussi,  Brodsky,  de  Bloch,  and  Roth- 
stein  rise  above  the  general  level  of  hard- 
working poverty.  On  the  Continent,  besides 
the  Rothschilds  we  find  not  more  than  twenty 
Jewish  capitalists.  Among  the  more  than 
twelve  hundred  millionaires  of  New  York 
City  there  cannot  be  found  more  than  about 
thirty  of  Jewish  names,  and  not  over  seventy- 
five  among  the  four  thousand  millionaires  in 
the  country  at  large.  Surely  this  is  a  small 
proportion  for  so  great  a  population. 

Originally  the  Jews  were  an  agricultural 
people  and  their  civil  policy  was  framed  spe- 
cially for  this  state  of  things.  The  sons  of 
Shem  built  their  first  cities  remote  from  the 
channels  of  trade,  while  the  race  of  Ham  and 
Japheth  built  upon  the  seashore  and  the  banks 
of  the  great  rivers.  But  the  misfortunes  of 
persecution  made  traders  of  them.  Denied 
citizenship,  subject  at  any  time  to  spoliation 
and  expulsion,  their  only  possible  chance  of 
living  was  in  traffic,  in  which  they  soon  be- 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE  JEWS  195 

came  skilled.  They  naturally  followed  the 
great  channels  of  commerce  the  world  over. 
Gentile  persecution  kept  them  on  the  go, 
and  to  protect  their  property  against  Gentile 
thieves  their  wealth  had  to  be  portable,  and 
so  they  frequently  turned  it  into  jewels,  be- 
cause they  could  be  most  securely  and  most 
secretly  kept  and,  in  case  of  flight,  most  easily 
removed;  this  accounts  for  their  prominence 
in  the  jewelry  business  from  early  times,  and 
hence,  too,  their  introduction  of  bills  of  ex- 
change. 

Prevented  in  many  countries  from  holding 
land,  they  had  no  inducement  to  settle  in  the 
country.  Besides,  their  religious  enactments 
require  that  the  sacred  functions  of  public 
worship  be  performed  in  the  presence  of 
not  less  than  twelve  males  above  the  age  of 
thirteen,  the  minimum  for  a  congregation; 
this  requires  that  at  least  forty  souls  shall 
dwell  within  accessible  distance.  This  may 
explain  the  fact  that  so  few  Jews  dwell  in 
small  villages.     That  the  Jews  tend  toward 


196      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

large  cities  is  not  peculiar  to  them.  It  is  a 
constant  feature  of  modern  statistics. 

The  Jew  is  everywhere  pioneering  and 
building  up  states.  "  Commerce  and  the  dif- 
fusion of  civilization  are  most  closely  allied. 
Follow  all  the  tides  of  modern  civilization, 
and  wherever  you  see  the  prosperous  con- 
ditions of  commerce  you  see  civilization  on 
the  boom.  Jewish  commerce  centered  around 
the  great  cities  the  world  over,  and  thus 
opened  the  gates  for  Christianity.  The 
flourishing  trade  of  the  Jews,  which  made 
Spain  the  focus  of  mediaeval  culture,  fur- 
nished not  only  the  great  discoverers  with  the 
key  to  unlock  the  new  worlds  with  their  in- 
exhaustible treasures,  but  exercised  its  in- 
fluence on  entire  Christianity.',  "Jewish  com- 
merce," says  Lecky  in  his  "  History  of 
Rationalism,"  "  liberated  mankind  from  the 
thraldom  of  the  Church,  giving  the  world  the 
much-needed  lesson  of  sound  practical  com- 
mon sense." 

The  Jew,  we  are  told,  is  only  a  middleman. 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE  JEWS  197 

Men  cannot  eat  their  own  manufactures  as 
a  general  thing — engines,  shovels,  linens  and 
woolens,  boots  and  gloves,  useful  as  they  are 
in  their  way,  are  failures  as  articles  of  diet. 
The  merchant  or  even  the  peddler  who  takes 
these  inedible  things  and  disposes  of  them  is 
as  important  a  cogwheel  in  the  machinery  of 
society  as  the  railroad  which  takes  the  wheat 
or  the  cotton,  the  coal  or  the  iron  ore,  from 
regions  where  it  cannot  be  worked  up  into 
shape,  and  places  them  where  the  manufac- 
tory or  the  consumer  awaits  them. 

•THE  LONGEVITY  OF  THE  JEWS 

Quakers,  who,  in  the  simplicity  of  their 
ordinary  life,  may  be  supposed  to  conform 
more  closely  to  religious  precepts  than  most 
religious  bodies,  are  the  longest-lived  people 
of  whom  we  have  record.  Next  to  them  come 
the  Jews.  The  average  term  of  life  among 
the  Gentiles  is  twenty-six  years.  Among  the 
Jews  it  is  thirty-seven.  The  life-insurance 
companies,  who  have  made  the  science  of 


198      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

statistics  a  profession  as  the  basis  of  commer- 
cial computation,  will  tell  you  that  the  life  of 
the  average  Jew  is  more  than  forty  per  cent, 
more  valuable  than  that  of  any  other  people, 
except  Quakers  and  preachers. 

A  writer  in  the  Western  Medical  Review 
declares  that  in  spite  of  the  social  conditions 
which  surround  the  mass  of  the  Hebrew  popu- 
lation of  the  world,  and  especially  in  the 
large  cities  of  America,  where  they  form  a 
large  percentage  of  the  population,  the  death 
rate  among  the  Jewish  inhabitants  is  but  little 
over  half  of  that  of  the  average  American 
population.  Professor  William  Z.  Ripley,  in 
his  papers  on  the  racial  geography  of  Europe 
in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly,  discusses  this 
question  very  fully.  He  states  that  if  two 
groups  of  ioo  infants  each,  one  Jewish  and 
one  of  average  American  parentage,  be  born 
upon  the  same  day,  one-half  of  the  Jews  will 
not  succumb  to  disease  before  the  expiration 
of  seventy-one  years. 

According  to    Lombroso,   of    1,000  Jews 


V  J 

INDEBTEDNESS   TO  THE   JEWS  199 

born,  217  die  before  the  age  of  seven  years, 
while  453  Christians,  more  than  twice  as 
many,  are  likely  to  die  within  the  same 
period.  In  London,  according  to  the  testi- 
mony of  Dr.  Behrend,  consumption  is  less 
frequent  among  the  Jews  in  the  most  squalid 
dens  of  Whitechapel  than  among  the  Chris- 
tians. Alcoholism  is  very  rare  among  Jews. 
During  the  six  years  ending  May  31,  1890, 
alcoholism  caused  in  each  100,000  persons  of 
each  race  in  New  York  31  deaths  annually 
among  the  Irish,  10  among  the  Germans,  9 
among  the  Americans,  6  among  the  negroes, 
3  among  the  Italians,  and  only  1  among  the 
Jews  (Russian  and  Polish). 

Why  are  the  Jews  so  much  less  subject  to 
consumption,  cholera,  croup,  typhus,  and 
scrofula?  Since  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to 
kill  a  dozen  hogs  before  a  sound  pair  of  lungs 
can  be  found,  it  does  not  seem  strange  that 
consumption  is  so  prevalent  among  the  eaters 
of  swine.  Close  investigations  have  disclosed 
the   fact   that   nearly    one-half   the   animals 


200      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

killed  are  not  kosher,  or  fit  to  be  eaten.  Our 
way  of  killing  meat  is,  through  its  proneness 
to  become  tuberculous,  perhaps  the  cause  of 
more  disease  than  all  other  agencies  com- 
bined. 

A  LAW-ABIDING  PEOPLE 

The  Jews  are  a  law-abiding  people.  Thirty- 
five  years  ago  the  prisons  hardly  knew  of  the 
existence  of  the  Jew ;  and  while  no  race  has  a 
monopoly  of  virtue  or  a  monopoly  of  vice,  the 
Jews  to-day,  notwithstanding  the  tremendous 
immigration  in  recent  years,  have  the  best 
record  of  any  race  or  religion  in  America. 
Not  more  than  one  or  two  Jews  have  been 
hanged  in  America,  although  I  have  known 
several  whom  a  little  hanging  might  improve. 
When  Mordecai  M.  Noah,  on  his  accession  to 
the  office  of  Sheriff  of  New  York,  was  taunted 
with  the  remark,  "  Pity  Christians  have  to 
be  hanged  by  a  Jew! "  he  replied,  "  Pity  Chris- 
tians require  hanging  at  all!  " 

M.  de  Bloch  has  published  a  series  of  statis- 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE  JEWS  201 

tics  on  the  Jews  in  Russia, — 4,000,000  people 
scattered  among  ignorant,  fanatical,  and 
demoralized  moujiks  (peasants)  who  rob  and 
plunder  at  their  will.  The  schools  are  closed 
against  the  Jews,  lucrative  professions  are  for- 
bidden them,  and  they  are  huddled  together 
in  the  least  productive  provinces  of  the  Tsar's 
realm,  their  only  means  of  subsistence  trading 
with  the  ignorant  masses;  yet,  as  de  Bloch 
shows,  there  is  only  one  Jewish  criminal  to 
every  2,170  individuals,  whereas  among  non- 
Jews  the  proportion  is  one  to  every  715.  In 
the  Pale  the  arrears  of  taxes  are  less  than  in 
governments  which  are  free  from  Jews,  and 
in  the  twenty-five  governments  of  the  Pale 
every  year  eight  million  roubles  less  are  spent 
in  drink,  a  saving  which  enables  the  peasants 
to  improve  their  land  and  pay  their  taxes.  In 
regard  to  trade,  Jews  are  mostly  engaged  in 
petty  commerce.  The  Jews  in  the  Pale  who 
carry  on  business  form  more  than  half  of  the 
trading  population,  but  the  total  value  of 
their  income  is  436  million  roubles  against 


202    the:  jew  as  a  patriot 

489  million  of  the  Christian  minority.  The 
great  majority  of  Jews  are  small  retail 
dealers,  who  earn  from  sixty  to  eighty  kopeks 
a  day,  and  in  order  to  make  this  minute  profit 
they  have  to  carry  on  business  from  twelve  to 
sixteen  hours  daily.  M.  de  Bloch  estimates 
the  number  of  Jewish  handicraftsmen  in  the 
Pale  at  3,101,560,  which  is  nearly  eighty  per 
cent,  of  the  entire  number  of  workingmen,  al- 
though they  constitute  only  twenty  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  population. 

When  I  think  of  the  tales,  tragedies,  and 
tyrannies  the  Jews  have  endured  in  Russia 
for  over  two  hundred  years,  I  feel  like  bowing 
in  reverence  before  them,  especially  when  I 
recall  that  within  the  past  fifty  years,  in  spite 
of  the  crimes  and  barbarities  which  stain  the 
pages  of  Russian  history,  this  synagogue  Jew 
has  produced  an  Antokolski,  whose  fiftieth 
birthday  was  recently  celebrated  by  artists  all 
over  the  world ;  an  Anton  Rubinstein,  in  whom 
the  piano  found  its  greatest  master;  a  Nato- 
witch,  editor  of  the  most  literary  and  influen- 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE  JEWS  205 

tial  Russian  paper,  Novosti.  What  scholar 
has  not  heard  of  the  greatest  Russian,  Orien- 
tal, and  European  linguists,  Professor  Khwol- 
son  and  Dr.  Abraham  Harkavi?  Or  what 
man  of  affairs  has  not  heard  of  Sachs,  the 
superintendent  of  the  Russian  railroads;  or 
de  Bloch,  already  quoted,  the  greatest  au- 
thority on  finance  and  economics  in  that 
Slavonic  empire?  What  student  of  medicine 
has  not  heard  of  Dr.  Haffkin,  who  has  lately 
drawn  the  world's  attention  to  his  medical 
discoveries,  was  rewarded  with  medals  by 
various  sovereigns,  and  who  suffered  from 
Russian  tyranny  in  his  younger  days? 

THE  JEW  IN  CHARITY 

In  charity  shine  conspicuously  not  only 
the  names  of  Sir  Moses  Montefiore  and  the 
Baron  and  Baroness  de  Hirsch,  whose  gener- 
osity while  living  made  their  names  fragrant 
throughout  the  world,  and  the  latter  when 
dying  left  $100,000,000  to  be  expended  in 
carrying  on  the  various  charities  founded  and 


2o4      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

fostered  by  the  baron  and  baroness ;  but  if  the 
bigoted  authorities  of  New  Amsterdam  who 
gave  their  permission  to  a  few  Hebrews  to 
settle  in  their  city,  "  upon  condition  that  they 
should  always  support  their  own  poor,"  could 
see  how  well  they  have  kept  the  promise, 
made  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago, 
those  old  burghers  would  open  their  eyes  in 
surprise  at  the  many  and  magnificent  benev- 
olent institutions,  covering  every  conceivable 
case  of  need,  which  testify  to  the  inborn  kind- 
ness of  the  Hebrew's  heart. 

The  Jews  of  New  York  alone  for  their 
twelve  leading  charities  contribute  upwards 
of  $800,000  a  year.  Jacob  H.  Setoff,  who  has 
been  called  by  his  business  associates  "  the 
white  man  of  Wall  Street;  Nathan  Straus, 
who  gives  his  charity  with  his  principles  al- 
ways in  view :  "  Do  not  pauperize  or  degrade 
those  whom  you  benefit.  Do  not  permit  your 
generosity  to  lower  them  in  their  own  estima- 
tion " ;  and  the  beloved  Mrs.  Esther  Herman 
are  only  a  few  of  the  many  Jews  in  New  York 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   JEWS  205 

we  could  name  who  are  famed  for  their  prac- 
tical and  constant  philanthropy. 

And  as  I  mingle  with  these  people,  and 
breathe  the  spirit  that  animates  them,  and 
feel  their  enthusiasm  for  humanity  stirring  my 
own  pulses,  and  see  that  they  are  as  intent  as 
Christians  are  to  do  all  the  good  they  can,  to 
all  the  people  they  can,  in  all  the  ways  they 
can,  I  cannot  help  but  feel  that  their  Father 
is  our  Father,  and  that  the  spiritual  Christ, 
the  essential  Christ,  must  be  their  Lord  as 
well  as  ours ;  and  while  having  no  sympathy 
with  those  who  would  proselyte  them,  they 
practice  the  gospel  of  love  as  preached  by 
Christianity,  I  can  take  the  good  Jew  by  the 
hand,  with  my  heart  in  it,  and  call  him 
brother! 

The  almshouse  has  no  need  to  provide  for 
the  Jew.  If  one  Jew  gets  into  trouble,  all  the 
others  stand  by  him.  The  divorce  court  sel- 
dom hears  of  him.  He  is  domestic  above  all 
men.  Drunkenness  is  not  a  Jewish  vice.  The 
only  occupation  that  does  not  thrive  among 


2o6      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

the  Jews  is  that  of  the  saloonkeeper.  To  the 
Potter's  Field  the  Jew  is  absolutely  unknown. 
With  the  Jew,  next  to  the  respect  for  the 
living  comes  the  veneration  for  the  dead. 

JEWISH  WIT  AND  HUMOR 

Now  let  us  take  a  little  mental  rest  by  step- 
ping aside  for  a  while  from  our  serious  dis- 
cussion and  contemplate  the  Jew  as  a  wit  and 
humorist. 

Carlyle  declared  that  the  Jews  had  no 
humor  and  showed  no  trace  of  it  in  any  period 
of  their  history.  Renan  says  very  much  the 
same  thing  in  his  "  History  of  the  Semitic 
Languages."  Disraeli's  "  Ixion  in  Heaven  " 
has  been  pronounced  by  many  good  judges 
one  of  the  best  pieces  of  humor  in  the  English 
language.  Have  you  never  read  Ludovic 
Halevy's  Dream  of  his  friend  Raoul,  who 
married  his  friend  Gaston's  widow,  and  the 
widow's  confusion  when  she  found  herself  be- 
tween her  two  husbands  in  the  definite  union 
above  in  heaven? — a  dream  founded  on  the 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   JEWS  207 

closing  words  of  the  officiating  priest's  ad- 
dress: "  Be  then  united  on  earth  until  you 
are  definitely  united  in  heaven." 

Are  you  fond  of  humor  and  have  never 
read  Saphir  on  Money? 

"What  is  money?  Money  is  a  goodly  lump 
which  the  Lord  God  attaches  to  insignificant 
people  so  as  not  to  lose  sight  of  them  in  his 
creation,  as  a  good  housekeeper  puts  a  big 
label  on  a  little  key. 

"  What  is  money?  Money  is  a  figure  which 
grows  in  importance  as  there  is  a  cipher  at- 
tached to  it. 

"  What  is  money?  Money  is  a  metal  heel 
under  the  boots  of  little  people  to  make  them 
appear  as  tall  as  others. 

"  What  is  money?  Money  is  an  indemnity 
which  God  gives  to  a  certain  number  of  per- 
sons on  condition  that  they  will  not  make 
bold  to  acquire  any  such  goods  as  Intellect 
or  Genius. 

"  What  is  money?  Money  is  the  mysteri- 
ous essence  of  a  being  which  defines  its  ego 


208      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

in  the  following  words:  '  If  I  were  not  what 
I  have,  I  should  not  have  what  I  am.' 

"  But  what  is  no-money?  No-money?  No- 
money? 

u  No-money  is  a  thing  of  which  all  pockets 
are  full. 

"  No-money  is  the  alibi  of  a  being  which 
should  testify  to  our  presence  in  this  world. 

"  No-money  is  a  gentle  invitation  of  nature 
to  incur  debts,  and  a  peremptory  command 
not  to  pay  them. 

"  No-money  is  an  irresistible  inclination 
to  melancholy  on  the  part  of  our  purse 
caused  by  hopeless  love  to  an  unattainable 
object. 

u  No-money  is  an  ^position  of  no  money 
at  all,  a  proposition  in  abstract  philosophy,  a 
fit  position  for  a  minister  of  finance,  and  a 
happy  exposition  for  platonic  love. 

u  No-money  is  a  vulgar  ballad  which  com- 
mon people  sing  aloud  on  the  streets,  but  the 
more  refined  only  hum  between  their  lips 
within  doors. 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   JEWS  209 

"  No-money  is  the  watchword  of  extreme 
radicalism  and  the  art  of  making  oneself  pop- 
ular at  a  low  price." 

In  "  Concerning  a  Coat  "  Saphir  writes : 
"  There  are  coat  artists  in  the  world,  men 
who  have  so  long  hung  their  coat  according 
to  the  wind,  that  the  order  has  become  re- 
versed and  the  coat  hangs  its  man  in  the 
wind.  The  expression  *  Den  Mantel  nach 
dem  Winde  hangen '  ('  One  must  hang 
one's  coat  according  to  the  wind  ')  is  alto- 
gether improper.  It  ought  to  read  as  fol- 
lows :  One  should  hang  his  coat  in  the  wind 
to  see  where  the  wind  blows,  and  then  hang 
himself  according  to  the  wind.  The  coat 
must  be  stronger  than  the  man;  otherwise 
the  coat  would  remain  hanging  according  to 
the  wind,  but  not  the  man.  In  reality  what  is 
meant  by  the  proverb  "  One  must  hang  one's 
coat  according  to  the  wind '  is  only  that 
1  one  must  hang  himself  according  to  the 
wind/  for  man  in  his  corporeality  is  only  the 
mantle  that  envelops  his  soul,  and  all  the 


210      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

good,  weak,  and  curious  souls  always  hang 
their  mantle  according  to  the  wind. 

w  I  have  known  men  who  had  no  coat  at  all, 
and  yet  were  so  skillful  in  hanging  their  coat 
according  to  the  wind  that  they  were  at  home 
in  all  the  coat-roles,  and  were  genuine  chil- 
dren of  Coat-Fortune. 

"  Other  men  are  still  more  unhandy  and 
hang  their  coat  according  to  the  contrary 
wind.  With  these  everything  goes  contrary, 
for  even  if  they  themselves  believe  that  they 
take  the  coat  along,  in  reality  it  is  the  coat 
that  takes  them  along. 

"  There  are  lots  of  people  who,  because 
they  hang  their  coat  according  to  the  wind, 
hang  their  words  in  the  coat,  and  hang  around 
every  word,  every  phrase,  a  little  mantle 
which  so  bemantles  all  their  talking  and  their 
doing  that  whatever  they  say  is  spoken  in  the 
wind. 

"  There  are  many  who  owe  their  happiest 
hours  to  a  coat  of  mourning ;  many  who  carry 
an  aching  heart  under  a  comedian's  cloak, 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   JEWS  211 

"  There  are  people  who  under  the  cloak 
of  sanctimoniousness  cover  the  cloven  hoof; 
others  again  who  under  the  cloak  of  Christian 
charity  to  one's  neighbor  take  away  from 
their  neighbor  his  cloak  and  coat. 

"  I  have  known  men  who  were  very  one- 
sided and  yet  carried  their  coat  on  both  sides ; 
still  another  class  of  people  hang  their  coats 
according  to  the  wind  only  to  display  the  fur- 
ring. All  this  and  more  of  what  still  remains 
in  my  coat  I  thought,  as  I  took  it  down  again 
for  the  first  time  that  fall ;  I  quickly  involved 
myself  in  it  and  muttered,  l  This  is  an  in- 
volved affair.'  " 


Literature  hardly  affords  any  parallel  to 
Heinrich  Heine's  wit  and  humor: 

"  The  certificate  of  baptism  is  the  admis- 
sion ticket  to  European  culture. 

"  B.  If  I  were  of  the  tribe  that  gave  birth 
to  our  Saviour,  I  should  glory  rather  in  the 
fact  than  be  ashamed  of  it. 


212      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

"  A.  So  would  I,  if  our  Saviour  were  the 
only  offspring  of  the  tribe;  but  since  then 
there  has  been  an  issue  of  so  many  vulgar 
dogs  that  acknowledgment  of  the  relation- 
ship has  become  a  risky  affair." 

"  Much  praise  is  continually  bestowed  upon 
the  playwright  who  knows  how  to  draw  tears ; 
but  the  most  miserable  onion  has  that  coveted 
gift,  and  he  must  share  his  laurels  with  that 
interesting  vegetables." 

"  Guizot's  most  prominent  feature  is  his 
pride.  If  he  should  ever  see  his  Maker  in 
heaven,  he  will  compliment  him  upon  having 
created  him." 

"  Rothschild,  too,  could  build  a  Walhalla, 
if  the  fancy  took  him — a  Pantheon  of  all 
princes,  that  went  to  him  a-borrowing." 


A   story   of   M.    Adolphe   D'Ennery,    the 
French  dramatist,  is  excellent. 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE  JEWS  213 

One  of  his  rivals  once  remarked,  "  This 
D'Ennery  is  a  true  Jew ;  that  is  why  he  never 
produces  a  play  without  interest."  "  Ah,"  re- 
marked D'Ennery,  "  what  a  good  Christian 
he  must  be!  " 

Could  anything  be  wittier — for  a  banker — 
than  the  following  reply  of  Baron  Rothschild, 
told  by  Arsene  Houssaye?  One  of  his  friends, 
a  sort  of  banker,  came  to  borrow  two  thou- 
sand dollars.  "  Here  it  is,"  said  the  Baron, 
"  but  remember  that  as  a  rule  I  only  lend  to 
crowned  heads."  Rothschild  never  dreamed 
of  seeing  his  money  again,  but,  wonderful  to 
relate,  at  the  end  of  a  month  the  borrower 
came  back  with  his  two  thousand  dollars. 
The  Baron  could  scarcely  believe  his  eyes; 
but  he  foreboded  that  this  was  not  the  end. 
Sure  enough,  a  month  later  the  borrower  re- 
appeared, asking  for  the  loan  of  four  thousand 
dollars.  "  No,  no,"  said  the  Baron,  "  you  dis- 
appointed me  once  by  paying  me  that  money. 
I  do  not  want  to  be  disappointed  again." 


214      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

A  man  who  was  once  talking  with  the  late 
Sir  Moses  Montefiore  at  a  reception  found 
the  conversation  so  entertaining  that  he  com- 
pletely forgot  the  race  of  his  companion  and 
made  some  uncomplimentary  remark  about 
the  Jewish  features  of  a  lady  who  was  passing 
by.  The  mistake  was  no  sooner  made  than  it 
was  perceived.  The  unhappy  man  began  to 
apologize  profusely.  "  I  ask  a  thousand  par- 
dons. It  was  so  stupid  of  me  to  forget.  You 
look  angry  enough  to  eat  me.  I  beg  you  not 
to  devour  me."  "  Sir,"  replied  Sir  Moses, 
"  it  is  impossible.     My  religion  forbids." 


A  very  clever  Chicago  society  lady,  who 
rather  hated  that  her  hostess  had  been  the 
one  to  give  the  function  in  Mr.  Zangwill's 
honor,  made  up  her  mind  to  let  fly  a  bit  of  her 
wit  at  the  distinguished  author  to  prove  to 
those  within  hearing  that  at  times  his  re- 
partee might  fail  him.  So  she  approached 
Zangwill,  and  raising  her  lorgnette,  surveyed 
him. 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO   THE  JEWS  215 

"  Mr.  Zangwill,"  said  she,  "  do  you  care  for 
pig's  feet?  " 

Those  around  her  held  their  breath. 

The  author  bit  his  lip.  A  little  snicker 
passed  through  the  group. 

Zangwell  adjusted  his  eyeglasses,  and  look- 
ing down  upon  the  woman,  replied  with  a 
smile  of  singular  sweetness :  "  Not  particu- 
larly, madam;  but  I  like  pig's  feet,  prepared 
in  any  way  or  not  prepared  at  all,  better  than 
I  like  tongue." 

ANTI-SEMITISM  IN  AMERICA 

In  America  the  Jew  has  a  double  claim 
to  recognition, — the  claim  of  the  man  under 
the  wide  tolerance  of  the  twentieth  century, 
and  the  claim  of  the  American  citizen  under 
the  broad  spirit  of  the  American  Constitution. 
Has  he  received  the  treatment  he  merits  as  a 
man,  and  the  rights  he  deserves  as  a  citizen? 
He  is  caricatured  in  the  comic  papers ;  in  our 
social,  professional,  and  even  political  clubs 
the  Jew  is  blackballed.    The  wealthy  Jewish 


216      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

merchant  looking  for  a  summer  resort  will  be 
handed  a  circular  bearing  the  foot-note,  "  No 
Jews  taken,"  and  I  have  seen  many  circulars 
which  added,  "  Dogs  not  allowed/'  The  Jew 
is  excluded  from  society.  Hosts  apologize  for 
the  stranger  by  assuring  you  that  "  he  is  a 
good  fellow,  if  he  is  a  Jew."  Mass-meetings 
have  recently  been  held  in  several  cities  for 
the  purpose  of  protesting  against  the  con- 
tinual ill-treatment  and  persecution  to  which 
the  poor  Jews  in  general  and  Jewish  peddlers 
in  particular  are  subjected,  not  only  by  the 
hoodlums,  but  by  the  school  children.  Re- 
cently in  Detroit,  the  Mayor  had  to  make  a 
special  appeal  to  the  police  to  prevent  vio- 
lence and  injustice.  In  Chicago,  Mayor  Har- 
rison sent  a  request  to  the  President  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  the  result  of  which  was 
that  the  Superintendent  of  Schools  issued  in- 
structions to  the  principals  of  all  the  schools 
to  warn  their  pupils  against  calling  offensive 
names,  throwing  stones,  or  otherwise  injur- 
ing poor  Jews.     These  instructions  were  car- 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   JEWS  217 

ried  out  by  means  of  the  principals.  Arch- 
bishop Feehan  was  also  approached  on  the 
subject. 

I  have  seen  Jewish  children  go  home  from 
our  public  schools  in  tears  because  of  the  of- 
fensive names  with  which  they  were  taunted. 
Outrages  are  frequently  perpetrated  upon 
the  Jews  on  the  east  side  of  New  York  under 
the  very  noses  of  the  police — outrages  which 
are  a  disgrace  to  the  Metropolis  of  the  Re- 
public. Russian  and  Roumanian  immigrants 
who  are  striving  with  might  and  main  to  earn 
a  livelihood  in  New  York  meet  with  a  recep- 
tion from  the  denizens  of  the  streets  not  at  all 
creditable  to  the  citizens.  A  writer  in  the 
Mail  and  Express  witnessed  the  following  in- 
cident : 

"  He  stood  on  the  Broadway  walk  in  front 
of  Trinity  churchyard — a  Roumanian  Jew, 
with  collar-buttons  and  shoe-laceS  to  sell. 
Biff,  came  a  bundle  of  yellow  slips,  thrown  by 
a  messenger-boy,  striking  him  in  the  eye.  He 
turned,  blinking  with  pain,  but  he  could  not 


218      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

run  after  the  miscreant,  who,  with  his  fellows, 
in  glee  was  dodging  into  the  crowd.  He 
could  leave  neither  his  wares  nor  catch  the 
boys. 

"  This  is  something  that  happens  every 
day.  The  lives  of  vendors  on  the  streets  are 
made  miserable  by  the  small  boy.  The  police- 
man, too,  takes  his  share  of  fruit,  of  the  best 
on  the  stand,  always.  The  small  boy  grabs. 
Both  are  thieves  and  work  with  impunity. 

"  Out  of  some  pity  at  the  outrage,  and 
maybe  curiosity,  a  passer-by  asked  the 
peddler  if  his  eye  pained  him  badly.  It  was 
so  injured  as  to  be  bloodshot,  and  the  tears 
streamed  down  the  poor  man's  face.  Some 
collar-buttons  were  bought,  and  the  man  for- 
got his  pain.  He  had  been  in  America  a  year, 
but  was  not  a  citizen  and  could  not  vote. 
How  much  did  he  make  in  a  day?  '  Fifty 
cents,  sometimes  sixty/ 

"  '  Wife  and  children?  ' 

1  In  Roumania.' 

"  The  fellow  was  surprised  at  being  spoken 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE  JEWS  219 

to,  but  he  was  grateful.  There  was  a  very 
human  look  of  thanks  in  his  uninjured  eye. 
The  other  looked  indignant  still." 

It  is  not  to  the  credit  of  the  rich  and  influ- 
ential Jews  of  our  cities  that  they  do  not  seek 
to  right  these  wrongs  heaped  upon  their 
poorer  brethren.  These  toiling  coreligionists 
are  worthy  of  the  influence  and  assistance  of 
their  more  fortunate  brethren.  The  non- 
Jewish  world  has  only  contempt  for  the  Jew 
who  does  not  seek  to  make  the  name  of  Jew 
respected  throughout  every  nook  and  corner 
of  the  nation. 

The  merchant  who  cheats  his  creditor  or 
rivals  his  competitor,  if  he  comes  of  Hebrew 
blood,  has  "  Jew!  "  hissed  at  him.  Judaism  is 
made  responsible  for  every  trick  in  trade. 
Do  we  not  derive  all  our  notions  of  integrity 
from  the  Jew,  who  first  taught  the  world, 
"Thou  shalt  not  steal"  and  "Thou  shalt 
not  bear  false  witness  "?  "  It  is  an  ill  bird  that 
fouls  its  own  nest." 

It  is  just  as  unreasonable  to  use  the  word 


220      THE  JEW  AS  A  PATRIOT 

"  Yankee  "  for  all  that  meanness  which,  it  is 
said,  would  cheat  in  the  measurement  if 
given  the  right  to  sell  out  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
by  the  pint,  as  to  make  of  the  word  "  Jew  "  a 
verb  to  designate  taking  advantage  in  trade. 
I  have  seen  some  mean  Yankees  who,  in  the 
words  of  another,  "  with  a  jack-knife  and  a 
pine  shingle  could  in  two  hours'  time  whittle 
the  smartest  Jew  in  New  York  out  of  his 
homestead  in  the  Abrahamic  Covenant."  But 
to  despise  all  New  Englanders,  among  whom 
are  the  largest-hearted  and  biggest-brained 
people  on  earth,  on  account  of  the  proverbial 
meanness  and  trickery  of  some,  is  certainly 
unreasonable  prejudice. 

In  Marlowe's  "  Jew  of  Malta,"  Barabbas  is 
made  to  say: 

"  Some  Jews  are  wicked  as  some  Christians  are; 
But  say  the  tribe  that  I  descended  of 
Were  all  in  general  cast  away  for  sin, 
Shall  I  be  tried  for  their  transgression? 
The  man  that  dealeth  righteously  shall  live." 

Never  was  a  truer  word  spoken ;  every  Jew 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   JEWS  221 

has  been  made  responsible  for  the  acts  of 
every  other  Jew. 

Lord  Macaulay  has  truly  said,  "  The  Jew 
is  what  we  made  him."  Leroy-Beaulieu 
forcibly  says :  "  Their  virtues  are  their  own, 
their  vices  are  our  making.  Their  virtues  are 
the  result  of  Judaic  teaching;  their  vices  are 
the  results  of  circumstances  which  we  have 
massed  about  their  life."  Or  to  use  the 
words  of  the  late  Senator  Vance:  "  If  the 
Jew  is  a  bad  job,  in  all  honesty  we  should  con- 
template him  as  the  handiwork  of  our  own 
civilization." 

In  one  of  the  finest  passages  of  Cumber- 
land's "The  Jew,"  Sheva  answers  Sir  Stephen, 
who  cannot  conceive  that  a  Jew  cannot  lend 
even  a  small  sum  without  the  desire  of 
doubling : 

"  What  has  Sheva  done  to  be  called  a  vil- 
lain? I  am  a  Jew;  what  then?  Is  that  a 
reason  none  of  my  tribe  should  have  a  sense 
of  pity?  You  have  no  great  deal  of  pity  your- 
self, but  I  know  many  noble  British  mer- 


222      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

chants  that  do  abound  in  pity,  therefore  I  do 
not  abuse  your  tribe." 

The  prejudice  that  still  exists  against  the 
Jew  must  be  traced  to  this  as  one  of  the  lead- 
ing causes.  One  is  made  responsible  for  all, 
and  all  are  made  responsible  for  one.  Paul 
and  Iscariot  were  both  Jews,  and  yet  many  a 
Christian  execrates  the  nation  from  whom 
the  betrayer  of  the  Master  sprung,  and  seems 
to  forget  altogether  that  from  the  same 
nation  sprang  Paul,  the  great  apostle. 

The  teaching  of  the  Bible  can  only  produce 
good.  Why  should  not  the  Ten  Command- 
ments promulgated  through  Moses  have  as 
powerful  and  as  purifying  a  grasp  upon  the 
conscience  of  the  Jew  as  upon  that  of  the 
Gentile?  Is  it  fair  to  let  prejudice  against  in- 
dividuals develop  into  prejudice  against  a  race? 
Let  the  reproach  be  cast  where  it  belongs, 
upon  the  individual  and  not  upon  the  race. 
Alexandre  Dumas  said:  "  When  I  found  out 
that  I  was  black,  I  determined  to  live  so  white 
as  to  force  men  to  look  beneath  my  skin." 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO   THE  JEWS  223 

That  ought  to  be  the  spirit  and  ambition  of 
every  man  who  belongs  to  a  persecuted  race. 
I  believe  that  Judaism  has  a  mission,  and  if  I 
were  a  Jew  I  would  be  proud  of  it.  Heine 
said :  "  The  history  of  the  Jews  is  beautiful ; 
but  our  modern  Jews  are  standing  in  the  light 
of  the  ancient  ones,  who  certainly  deserve  to 
be  held  in  greater  esteem  than  either  Greeks 
or  Romans.  I  believe  if  the  race  as  such  was 
extinct,  and  a  rumor  got  abroad  that  there 
was  a  specimen  of  that  people  living  some- 
where, they  would  travel  a  hundred  miles  to 
see  that  individual  and  shake  hands  with  him 
— and  now  they  are  shunning  us!  "  But 
people  will  not  shun  you  if  you  are  a  good 
Jew.  If  I  were  a  Jew,  I  would  stand  up  for 
my  rights;  I  would  be  neither  uppish  nor 
iconoclastic;  I  would  not  sneer  at  the  syna- 
gogue, nor  reject  all  the  traditions  and  cus- 
toms of  Judaism;  I  would  not  be  close  and 
hard  in  business ;  I  would  never  take  advan- 
tage in  a  bargain ;  I  would  not  higgle  for  the 
lowest  penny  when  paying,  or  the  highest 


224      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

when  making  a  sale ;  I  would  not  pay  a  min- 
imum of  wages  and  exact  the  maximum  of 
work;  I  would  not  be  suspicious  of  any  one's 
honesty;  I  would  not  be  small-souled,  selfish, 
grasping,  narrow-spirited,  envious,  and  jeal- 
ous ;  I  would  be  large-hearted,  noble-spirited, 
generous  to  the  very  utmost  of  self-sacrifice ; 
I  would  seek  to  have  my  life  one  unflawed 
crystal,  to  make  weighty  my  influence  for 
truth  and  nobleness ;  I  would,  in  short,  make 
the  word  Jew  stand  for  all  that  is  great,  good, 
and  grand  in  character. 

Judaism,  the  mother  of  Christianity,  is  still 
a  living  force,  and  he  is  the  best  Jew  whose 
heart  beats  with  the  purest  pulse  towards 
God  and  man,  and  not  he  whose  head  spins 
the  finest  theological  cobwebs. 

"'Tis  not  the  wise  phylactery,  nor  stubborn  taste,  nor 
stated  prayers 
That  makes  us  saints:  we  judge  the  tree  by  what  it 
bears." 

In  their  dealings  Jews  are  as  honorable  as 
other  men.     At  a  meeting  in  New  York  of 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   JEWS  225 

the  Association  of  Credit  Men,  at  which  but 
a  few  Jews  were  present,  the  late  Hon.  Wil- 
liam L.  Strong,  former  mayor  of  the  city,  said : 
"  I  have  lost  less  money  selling  goods  to  men 
who  were  not  worth  anything  than  in  selling 
goods  to  wealthy  concerns.  I  have  a  case  in 
mind  of  one  who  began  buying  on  credit  of 
me  one  case  of  goods.  In  two  years  his  credit 
with  us  amounted  to  $30,000.  He  was  a  Jew. 
In  sixteen  years  he  divided  $250,000  with  his 
partner.  I  am  about  one-fourth  Jew  myself. 
That  is,  I  have  more  faith  in  Jews  paying  than 
I  have  in  Gentiles  doing  so.  We  have  lost 
four  times  with  the  latter  to  one  of  the 
former ;  and  of  Jews  who  failed,  ten  have  paid 
100  cents  on  the  dollar  to  one  of  the  Gen- 
tiles." This  was  not  said  at  a  gathering  of 
Jews,  but  given  as  a  fact  of  value  to  be  borne 
in  mind  by  credit  men  in  arriving  at  decisions. 
The  social  standards  of  the  Jews  are  just 
as  low  and  just  as  fine  as  other  peopled  in 
corresponding  position.  Money  often  gets 
ahead  of  the  manners  of  Jew  and  Gentile 


226         HE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

alike.  Where  do  you  not  find  the  parvenu  in 
American  society?  How  many  people  do 
you  know  who  have  had  two  generations  of 
continuous  wealth  and  the  conditions  of  re- 
fined society?  Israel  Zangwill  has  well  said: 
"  Possibly  some  few  Jews  who  have  gained 
money  before  they  have  had  time  to  gain  cul- 
ture may  be  a  little  loud  and  a  little  unpleas- 
ing  to  many  gentlemanly  Americans  of  the 
same  income.  But  exclusion  carries  with  it 
such  tremendous  dangers  and  such  peril  of 
resuscitating  the  old  mediaeval  savagery 
which  Americans  came  to  overthrow,  that 
this  deadly  weapon  of  social  excommunica- 
tion should  be  resorted  to  only  whenever  any 
other  method  fails.  And  as  one  who  has 
closely  studied  the  Jewish  character  in  its 
shades  as  well  as  its  lights,  as  one  who  has 
always  written  without  fear  or  favor,  I  can 
assure  our  squeamish  and  impatient  Amer- 
ican aristocrats  that  the  disappearance  of  any 
unpleasant  social  taints  in  the  Jew  is  only  a 
question  of  one  generation. 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO   THE   JEWS  227 

"  The  most  offensive  Jew  who  has  made 
money  is  humbly  anxious  for  his  children  to 
have  better  social  advantages  than  he  had. 
And  from  the  strident  and  assertive  Jews  who 
have  grown  coarse  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence will  come  the  quiet  and  cultivated  ladies 
and  gentlemen  who  will  be  an  enormous 
force  for  good  in  the  America  of  to-morrow. 
The  same  is  true  of  Americans  at  large,  not 
merely  Jews." 

THE  ANTI-SEMITE  A   COWARD 

The  anti-Semite  is  a  coward.  The  cry  of 
the  Jew-hater  is  the  cry  of  the  beaten  man. 
The  best  man,  as  a  rule,  wins.  If  you  want  to 
know  why  the  Jews  win,  read  the  names  pub- 
lished annually  of  the  public-school  children 
who  have  passed  the  examinations  for  en- 
trance to  the  subfreshman  class  of  the  Col- 
lege of  the  City  of  New  York.  There  are  the 
Cohens,  Cosinskys,  Levys,  Greenbaums, 
Sesmorskys,  Shapiros,  Fleishers,  Bernsteins, 
Rosenbergs,    Goldsteins,    Kopfsteins,    Czar- 


228      THE  JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

kowskis,  and  other  names  of  unmistak- 
able Jewish  families  from  Germany  and  from 
Russia,  and  very  few  names  of  children  of 
American  descent.  Fifty  per  cent,  of  the 
students  in  Columbia  University  are  Jews; 
they  are  busy  qualifying  themselves  for  suc- 
cess, and  while  we  are  reviling  them  they  are 
broadening  their  minds. 

With  the  exception  of  Russia,  the  Jews 
are  more  hated  in  Austria  than  in  any 
other  country  on  earth.  Although  the 
Jews  form  hardly  five  per  cent,  of  the 
total  population  of  the  Austrian  Kingdom, 
they  contribute  more  than  nineteen  per 
cent,  to  the  students  at  the  Austrian  univer- 
sities. In  the  Vienna  University  forty  per 
cent,  of  the  students  are  Jews  and  thirty  per 
cent,  of  the  teachers  are  Jews.  In  the  Buda- 
pest University  a  third  of  the  professors  are 
of  Jewish  origin.  In  the  classical  and  high 
schools  of  Hungary  twenty  per  cent,  of  the 
pupils  are  Jews,  although  they  constitute  but 
little  more  than  four  per  cent,  of  the  popula- 


INDEBTEDNESS   TO   THE   JEWS  229 

tion.  In  the  intermediate  schools  of  Austria 
yy  per  cent,  are  Jews.  Eighty-five  per  cent, 
of  the  successful  lawyers  of  Berlin  are  Jews, 
and  the  percentage  is  about  the  same  of  the 
great  and  lucrative  business  of  all  sorts  in 
Germany.  In  Germany  the  business  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  Jews;  they  are  pushing  the 
Christian  to  the  wall,  therefore  the  Jew  must 
be  banished.  Only  a  decadent  race  need  fear 
the  Jew,  and  if  the  German  or  the  French- 
man is  afraid  of  him,  so  much  the  worse  for 
the  German  or  the  Frenchman. 

We  hear  this  same  cry  in  New  York, 
Chicago,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  other 
cities — that  the  banks,  the  newspapers,  the 
theatres,  the  great  mercantile  and  manufac- 
turing interests,  business  of  the  high  value 
and  the  small,  are  in  the  hands  of  the  Jew. 
Now,  why  is  the  Jew  getting  on?  I  recently 
spent  a  few  clays  in  some  libraries  on  the  east 
side  of  New  York — libraries  patronized 
largely  by  Russian  and  Polish  Hebrews.  Any 
librarian  in  the  city  will  tell  you  that  these 


230      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

young  Jews  are  the  most  remarkable  readers 
in  the  city — they  read,  and  devour  American 
history  and  biography,  philosophy  and 
science.  There  is  little  call  for  books  in  their 
own  language.  The  desire  appears  to  be  to 
leave  foreign  literature  behind  when  the  old 
country  is  abandoned.  Everywhere  the  Jew 
is  disciplining  his  reasoning  powers,  and 
learning  how  to  do  better  work  which  insures 
that  success  which  clamor  and  complaining 
never  win.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  Jew  is 
winning;  it  were  strange  if  he  did  not  win. 
If  the  Jew  continues  as  he  has  begun,  he  will 
hold  the  future. 

THE  LOVE  OF  GOLD 

The  inordinate  love  of  gold  is  the  sin  of  our 
day  and  one  of  the  grave  perils  of  our  civiliza- 
tion. The  jingle  of  coin  is  the  snare  of  all 
religious  creeds  and  races  alike.  If  we  loved 
God  as  we  love  gold,  we  should  soon  be  lifted 
into  angelhood.  The  almost  frenzied  strife 
to  get  money  is  never-ceasing,  and  to  obtain 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE  JEWS  231 

it  many  a  Christian  imperils  alike  his  body 
and  his  soul;  and  no  matter  how  despicable 
the  man  may  be,  if  he  gets  money,  by  hook  or 
by  crook,  and  either  of  them  is  far  from  being 
straight,  he  will  be  idolized,  though  mentally 
deficient,  vulgar  in  person,  ugly  in  features, 
and  coarse  in  language.  Let  us  remember 
this  truth  when  we  sit  in  judgment  upon  the 
Jewish  people. 

The  love  of  money  is  the  curse  of 
Jew  and  Gentile  alike.  Is  not  the  Chris- 
tian to  blame  for  the  money-lending  char- 
acteristics of  the  Jew?  Did  not  the  Chris- 
tian drive  him  from  all  other  branches 
of  trade  with  a  price  on  his  head,  and  place 
his  home  at  the  mercy  of  others?  Is  it  right 
now  to  insult  his  race  and  religion,  because  of 
that  fact,  in  sneeringly  calling  him  a  Jew? 
You  can  throw  a  stone  into  any  of  our  Chris- 
tian churches  and  hit  a  Shylock.  The  Jew 
knows  how  to  deal  in  money,  but  the  Chris- 
tian gave  him  the  points  in  the  game  of  usury. 

Yes,  Jews  love  money,  and  so  do  Chris- 


232      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

tians.  Look  at  our  American  Congress  and 
our  State  legislatures  and  tell  me  if  those 
who  sell  their  votes  to  the  corporations  for 
class  legislation  are  Jews.  Are  all  who  have 
monopolized  the  lands,  watered  the  railroad 
stocks,  and  cornered  the  homes,  are  they  all 
Jews?  Who  owns  the  mortgage  on  your 
house?  Nine  times  out  of  ten  it  is  a  Chris- 
tian. Ask  him  to  be  lenient  with  you  and  he 
will  demand  his  pound  of  flesh,  and  go  old 
Shylock  one  better  by  sucking  the  blood 
along  with  it. 

Among  Jews,  as  among  Christians,  there 
are  those  who  think  more  of  the  man  with 
bonds  in  his  pockets  than  of  the  man  with 
bonds  on  his  feet  and  hands.  Among  Jews 
and  Christians  alike  you  find  vulgar,  loud- 
mouthed, money-inflated,  offensive  snobs 
who  fill  you  with  insufferable  disgust. 

OUR  DEBT  TO  THE  JEWS  FOR  THE  BIBLE 

The  Jew  has  given  to  the  world  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  only  true  and  living  God.     He 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE  JEWS  233 

has  given  Moses,  who  in  the  twelve  United 
States  of  Israel  gave  to  the  world  the  first 
Republic,  and  whose  laws  after  thirty-three 
hundred  years  still  form  the  basis  of  the  civil- 
ized world's  jurisprudence. 

Jesus,  the  ideal  of  the  race;  Jesus,  whom 
Spinoza  called  "  the  symbol  of  divine  wis- 
dom " ;  whom  Kant  and  Jacobi  held  up  as  the 
"  symbol  of  ideal  perfection " ;  of  whom 
Strauss  said  "  he  remains  the  highest  model 
of  religion  within  our  thoughts,"  and  Renan 
declared  "whatever  will  be  the  surprises  of  the 
future,  Jesus  will  never  be  surpassed  " — this 
Jesus  was  a  Jew.  Dr.  Max  Nordau  voices 
the  more  cultured  Jewish  sentiment  of  our 
day  concerning  Christ  when  he  says:  "  Jesus 
is  soul  of  our  soul,  even  as  he  is  flesh  of  our 
flesh.  Who,  then,  could  think  of  excluding 
him  from  the  people  of  Israel?  St.  Peter  will 
remain  the  only  Jew  who  has  said  of  the  Son 
of  David,  '  I  know  not  the  man/  Putting 
aside  the  Messianic  mission,  this  man  is  ours. 
He  honors  our  race,  and  we  claim  him  as  we 


234      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

claim  the  Gospels — flowers  of  Jewish  litera- 
ture, and  only  Jewish." 

Our  Bible,  the  Old  as  well  as  the  New  Tes- 
tament, was  written  by  Jews.  What  would 
the  world  have  been  without  the  Bible?  The 
countries  which  are  indisputably  the  foremost 
and  most  enlightened  among  the  nations  are 
Bible  nations.  Where  the  Bible  prevails  in- 
telligence rules.  In  every  country  where  the 
Bible  does  not  rule  you  find  man  in  a  semi- 
barbarous  condition.  The  most  highly  civil- 
ized and  most  intelligent  people,  the  most 
just  and  reasonable  laws,  humane  and  chari- 
table institutions  are  to  be  found  only  in  those 
countries  where  the  Jewish  Bible  rules. 
Where  there  is  no  Bible  there  is  no  liberty. 
To  it  we  owe  more  liberty  and  civilization 
than  to  any  source  or  power.  Ours  is  the 
only  flag  that  has  in  reality  written  upon  it 
"  Liberty,  Fraternity,  Equality,"  and  this 
great  Republic  was  founded  by  Bible  be- 
lievers. This  Book,  translated  1604-11, 
spread  through  England  and  inspired  the  re- 


INDEBTEDNESS  TO  THE   JEWS  235 

volt  against  Charles  I.  in  1642.  Its  "  To  your 
tents,  O  Israel "  quickened  the  Puritans  into 
action,  and  its  inspiration  caused  them  to  ride 
into  battle  singing  its  psalms.  It  was  the 
Bible  which  lifted  the  people  of  Europe  into  a 
civilized  condition  and  made  nations  of  them. 
All  the  beneficent  changes  in  the  world  have 
occurred  under  the  dominion  of  the  Bible. 
The  Reformation — one  of  the  sublimest  up- 
risings in  the  whole  history  of  the  human 
race,  which  developed  the  human  mind, 
promoted  civilization,  liberalized  men,  de- 
stroyed in  a  measure  superstition,  revolution- 
ized religious  beliefs,  and  changed  the  forms 
of  governments — was  the  outgrowth  of  the 
study  of  the  Bible  by  Martin  Luther  under 
Nicholas  de  Lyra,  the  Jew.  "  Si  Lyra  non 
lyr  asset,  Luther  us  non  sal  t  asset." 

Liberty,  charity,  and  brotherhood  find  their 
only  place  of  abode  in  Bible  countries.  They 
thrive  upon  the  Bible.  Their  sustenance  is  the 
Bible.    They  worship  at  its  august  shrine,  and 


236      THE   JEW  AS  A   PATRIOT 

bow  with  imperial  grandeur  before  its  majes- 
tic throne. 

This  Book  which  attends  us  in  our  sickness 
and  when  the  fever  of  the  world  is  on  us, 
tempers  our  grief  to  finer  issues,  enables 
us  with  a  bright  eye  and  without  fear  to  take 
the  death-angel  by  the  hand,  to  tread  the  way 
through  the  dark  valley,  bidding  farewell  to 
wife  and  babes  and  home,  in  the  consolation 
of  meeting  in  gladness  beyond  the  tomb ;  this 
book  on  which  men  rest  their  dearest  hopes, 
and  which  tells  us  of  earthly  duties  and  in- 
spires us  with  heavenly  rest  and  heavenly 
reunion, — for  this  Book  we  are  indebted  to 
the  Jews. 


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WIT  AND  WISDOM  OF  THE  TALMUD.  By 
Rev.  Madison  C.  Peteks.  With  an  Introduction 
by  Rev.  Dr.  H.  Pereira  Mendes.  12mo,  cloth, 
gilt  top,  $1.00. 

"The  Talmud  is  one  of  the  most  ungetatable  masses  of 
literature  in  the  world,  both  because  of  its  bulk  and  the 
variety  of  its  dialects.  It  has  never  been  translated  as  a  whole, 
translations  of  parts  are  rare,  and  yet  it  is  a  repertory  of  pithy 
sayings  and  affords  a  rich  harvest  of  quotations  that  ought  to 
be  familiar,  but  are  not.  For  proof  of  this  we  would  refer 
the  reader  to  'Wit  and  Wisdom  of  the  Talmud.'  " — New  York 
Churchman 

"The  book  is  distinctly  a  valuable  one  for  all  literary 
workers." — Hartford  Courant. 

"  An  attractive  reference  book.  It  is  a  repository  of  ancient 
gold." — School  Journal. 

"Shows  judgment  and  good  taste  in  the  choice  of  its 
material." — American  Hebrew. 

"It  is  a  most  enjoyable  book,  and  the  compiler  is  to  be 
felicitated  on  having  discharged  his  task  so  discriminatingly." 
— Memphis  Commercial  Appeal. 

1 '  An  attractive  reference  book  of  apt  quotations.  Dr.  Peters 
has  done  a  good  work  by  broadening  the  horizon  of  the 
Christian  and  giving  this  glimpse  into  the  Jewish  scriptures." 
— Chicago  Chronicle. 

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THE  NEXT  GREAT 
AWAKENING 

By  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  D.D. 

1 2mo,  cloth,  75  cents 

This  work  is  especially  addressed  to  the  ministry  of  the 
world.  Regardless  of  sect,  it  must  interest  thinking 
religious  people  everywhere.  In  it  Dr.  Strong  works 
on  this  theme : 

There  were  great  religious  awakenings  in  the  sixteenth, 
seventeenth,  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries.  In 
each  instance  these  great  awakenings  came  in  connec- 
tion with  the  preaching  of  a  neglected  scriptural  truth 
or  truths,  which  were  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  the  times. 

The  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  naturally  suggests 
to  the  churches  a  new  forward  movement.  The  need 
of  a  great  religious  awakening  is  felt  and  preparation  for 
it  is  being  made.  When  will  it  come  ?  The  writer 
thinks  that  a  study  of  the  revivals  of  the  past  four 
hundred  years  justifies  the  conclusion  that  the  next  great 
awakening  will  come  when  certain  neglected  scriptural 
truths,  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  needs  of  our  times,  are 
faithfully  proclaimed.     These  truths  he  points  out. 

The  Baker  &  Taylor  Co.,  Publishers 

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THE  TIMES   AND 
YOUNG   MEN 

By  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  D.D., 

Author  of  "Our    Country,'*  "Religious  Movements 

for  Social  Betterment'* 

"Twentieth- Century  City,"  "Expansion"  etc. 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  75  cents 

Dr.  Strong  takes  up  the  profound  changes  which  have 
come  about  within  the  memory  of  living  men,  both  in 
the  physical  world  and  in  the  world  of  ideas.  He 
shows  what  were  the  causes  of  these  changes,  and 
points  out  the  results  which  have  (lowed  from  them 
already,  together  with  established  tendencies  which  are 
prophetic  of  future  changes,  thus  interpreting  the  times 
in  which  we  live. 

He  discusses  the  great  social  laws  which  must  be  obeyed 
if  social  ills  are  to  cease,  and  enables  the  young  man  to 
make  a  practical  application  of  these  laws  to  the  solu- 
tion of  his  own  personal  problems,  such  as  the  choice 
of  an  occupation,  his  education,  his  relation  to  athletics, 
personal  expenditure  and  the  like. 

In  short,  the  book  is  a  brief  and  simple  philosophy  of  life, 
intended  to  help  the  young  steer  a  safe  and  successful 
course  amid  the  conflicting  and  perplexing  currents  of 
modem  change — a  work  which  all  persons  engaged  in 
any  capacity  with  the  guidance  of  youth  would  be  glad 
to  see  in  the  hands  of  their  charges. 

The  Baker  &  Taylor  Co.,  Publishers 

33-37  E.  17th  Street,  Union  Square  North,  New  York 


A  New  Illustrated  Edition  of 

THE  SALT-BOX  HOUSE 

By  Jane  de  Forest  Shelton 

Eigbteentb-Century  Life  in  a  New  England  Hill  Town 

i2mo,  cloth,  gilt  top,  illustrated,  net  $1.50 

Beautifully  illustrated  with  six  full-page  drawings  by  John 
Henderson  Betts,  of  Philadelphia. 

The  success  of  Miss  Shelton's  book  led  the 
publishers  to  add  to  its  literary  charm  some 
sketches  which  greatly  increase  the  Colonial 
atmosphere  of  the  book.  From  the  very 
first  Miss  Shelton's  work  was  received  by 
all  students  of  Colonial  history  and  lovers  of 
Colonial  customs  with  the  warmest  ap- 
proval. 

"  Deserves  more  than  cursory  mention.  The  style  and  man- 
ner of  the  work  are  quiet  and  peaceful,  and  the  matter 
of  the  narrative  is  touched  with  an  almost  breathless  rev- 
erence. So  simple  is  the  commentary,  so  sweet  and 
gentle  its  slightest  utterance,  that  at  times  it  reaches  the 
highest  art  of  expression." — New  York  Public  Opinion. 
"Is  full  of  atmosphere  and  reality,  and  enlightened  with 
many  graceful  and  humorous  touches." 

— Philadelphia  Public  Ledger. 
"An  entertaining  as  well  as  faithful  picture  of  eighteenth- 
century  life,  and  we  heartily  recommend  it." 

— Boston  Transcript. 
"  The  reading  of  this  book  is  a  pure  delight." 

— Church  Standard. 

The  Baker  &  Taylor  Co.,  Publishers 

33-37  E.  17th  Street,  Union  Sq.  North,  N.  Y. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED   FOR   FAILURE  TO   RETURN 
THIS   BOOK   ON    THE   DATE  DUE.    THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY    AND    TO     $1.00    ON     THE    SEVENTH     DAY 
OVERDUE. 

SEi*    3   1937 

MAR  1  1  1970  4  8 

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LD  21-5ro-6,'37 

